An example adaptable interface

Adaptable.java

/**
 * Shamelessely borrowed from Eclipse concepts, as this article explains the
 * interest of this approach :
 * http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/adaptor-oriented-programming/view
 * There is also an article in Eclipse site :
 * http://www.eclipse.org/articles/article.php?file=Article-Adapters/index.html
 * but it is a little too much Eclipse centric for me
 */
public interface Adaptable {
	/**
	 * Check if this adaptable can be adapted to the given class.
	 * @param classToAdapt the class we want to know if we can adapt to
	 * @return true if we can adapt to that class, false elsewhere
	 */
	boolean canAdapt(Class<?> classToAdapt);

	/**
	 * The component adaptation process performed by getAdapter() proceeds in
	 * four steps:
	 * <ol>
	 * <li>If adapter is an interface that this implements then return this
	 * unchanged. (Note: This trivial case is usually not done by most
	 * implementors of this method ).</li>
	 * <li>If the method can find a matching adapter, return an instance that
	 * implements the adapter.<//li>
	 * </ol>
	 * @param classToAdapt the class to adapt. Basically, an instance of that class corresponding to this object will be returned
	 * @return an exception if {@link #canAdapt(Class)} return false for that class, otherwise an instance of that class adapting this object
	 */
	<AdaptedType> AdaptedType getAdapter(Class<AdaptedType> classToAdapt) throws UnableToAdapt;
}