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 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
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 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
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 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
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 #ifndef IINTERFACE_HXX_INCLUDED
 #define IINTERFACE_HXX_INCLUDED
 
 #include <sal/types.h>
 
 /** The base interface 
 */
 class IInterface
 { 
 public:
    
    /** Aquire a reference to an instance. A caller shall release
	    the instance by calling 'release' when it is no longer needed.
        'acquire' and 'release' calls need to be balanced.
        
        @returns 
        the current reference count of the instance for debugging purposes.
    */
    virtual sal_Int32 acquire() = 0;
    
    /** Releases a reference to an instance. A caller has to call
        'release' when a before aquired reference to an instance
        is no longer needed. 'acquire' and 'release' calls need to 
        be balanced. 
	
	@returns 
	    the current reference count of the instance for debugging purposes.
    */
    virtual sal_Int32 release() = 0; 
    
    /** Returns the current reference count. This method should be used for
        debugging purposes. Using it otherwise is a signal of a design flaw.
    */
    virtual sal_Int32 getReferenceCount() const = 0;
    
protected:
    virtual ~IInterface() {};
 };
  
 #endif // IDOCUMENT_HXX_INCLUDED