/**
* <font color=green>an element which matches some set of one-token-long input strings</font>.
*
- * This class is a topology over itself so that Atoms can be
- * intersected and unioned with each other to result in other
- * Atom<T>'s (rather than raw Topology<T>'s, which are not Elements).
- * If you want the latter, use the getTokenTopology() method.
+ * <p>
+ * This class is a topology over itself (yes, that's sort of Frege'd
+ * up) so that Atoms can be intersected and unioned with each other
+ * to result in other Atom<T>'s (rather than raw Topology<T>'s, which
+ * are not Elements). If you want the latter, use the
+ * getTokenTopology() method.
+ * </p>
*/
public abstract class Atom<T> extends Element implements Topology<Atom<T>> {
/** the set (topology) of tokens that can match this element */
public abstract Topology<T> getTokenTopology();
- public abstract StringBuffer toString(StringBuffer sb);
+ StringBuffer toString(StringBuffer sb) { sb.append(this); return sb; }
+
}
+