/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2006 IBM Corporation and others.
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.ui;

import org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath;

/**
 * An editor launcher is used to launch external editors on a
 * file in the local file system.
 * <p>
 * Clients should implement this interface to define a new type of editor
 * launcher.  Each new launcher must be registered as an editor in the 
 * workbench's editor extension point 
 * (named <code>"org.eclipse.ui.editors").
 *
 * For example, the plug-in's XML markup might contain:
 * <pre>
 * <extension point = "org.eclipse.ui.editors">
 *   <editor
 *       id="org.eclipse.ui.SwingEditorLauncher"
 *       name="Swing Editor"
 *       extensions="xml"
 *       launcher="org.eclipse.ui.examples.swingeditor.SwingEditorLauncher"
 *       icon="icons/xml.gif">
 *   </editor>
 * </extension>
 * </pre>
 * </p>

 * In this example a launcher has been registered for use with <code>xml
 * files.  Once registered, the launcher will appear in the <code>Open With
 * menu for an <code>xml file.  If the item is invoked the workbench will
 * create an instance of the launcher class and call <code>open on it,
 * passing the input file.
 * </p>
 */
public interface IEditorLauncher {

    /**
     * Launches this external editor to edit the file at the given 
     * location in the local file system.
     *
     * @param file the local file system path of the file to edit
     */
    public void open(IPath file);
}