/*
  TIMECODE.hpp  -  grid aligned and fixed format time specifications

  Copyright (C)         Lumiera.org
    2010,               Hermann Vosseler <Ichthyostega@web.de>

  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
  published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
  the License, or (at your option) any later version.

  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  GNU General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

*/


/** @file digxel.hpp
 ** A self-contained numeric element for building structured numeric displays.
 ** Within the GUI of an editing application, we got to build several display widgets
 ** to show numeric values in a structured fashion, like Colours or Timecode. While the
 ** actual formats of such display elements vary largely, the common property is that
 ** they use an underlying \em format to build the numbers out of individual numeric elements.
 ** For a timecode display these are for example the sexagesimal (base 60) "digits" of the
 ** common human readable time representation. A "Digxel" is an abstract element with specific
 ** properties to support building such display widgets. It doesn't contain any GUI code, but
 ** can be wrapped up to build a custom widget.
 ** 
 ** \par properties of a "Digxel"
 ** 
 ** Semantically, it's a number or number component. It holds an internal numeric representation
 ** and is implicitly convertible both to integrals and floating point numbers. This implicit
 ** conversion is a compromise to support generic processing.
 ** 
 ** But at the same time, a Digxel has a definite textual format and the ability to present
 ** its numeric value formatted accordingly. To this end, the contract \em requires that
 ** numeric data pushed to the Digxel be kept within such limits to prevent exceeding the
 ** embedded formatting buffer. There is an assertion in debug mode, and a range check,
 ** but the result will be just truncated, so this is clearly the caller's responsibility.
 ** Digxel might be considered an implementation support class, and performance is important
 ** to some limited degree; especially, formatted values will be cached.
 ** 
 ** To support in-place modification, the digxel stores a mutation signal (functor) and exposes
 ** a special \c mutate(newVal) function, which invokes this stored functor, if defined. Usually
 ** this should invoke some internal recalculations, resulting in a new value being pushed to
 ** the Digxel for display.
 ** 
 ** \par configuration
 ** the Digxel template can be configured to some degree to adjust the stored numeric data
 ** and the actual format to be applied
 ** 
 ** @see timecode.hpp typical usage example
 **
 */

#ifndef LIB_TIME_DIGXEL_H
#define LIB_TIME_DIGXEL_H

#include "lib/error.hpp"

//#include <boost/operators.hpp>
#include <cstdlib>  ////////////////////TODO
#include <string>


namespace lib {
namespace time {
  
  using std::string;
  
  
  /**
   * A number element for building structured numeric displays.
   * The purpose is to represent parts of a numeric format, like
   * e.g. the sexagesimal "digits" of a timecode display. Digxel
   * - is customised by template parameters to a specific number format
   * - requires that any number set must not overflow the format buffer
   * - can receive new numbers by assignment
   * - will then format these numbers and cache the formatted representation
   * - can store and invoke a mutation functor
   *  
   * @param TODO
   * @see lib::time::TCode
   * @todo WIP-WIP-WIP
   */
  template<class FMT>
  class Digxel
    {
      
    public:
      
      string describe()  const;
      
      
    };
  
  
  
}} // lib::time
#endif