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diff --git a/bundles/org.eclipse.compare/compare/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.java b/bundles/org.eclipse.compare/compare/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.java
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+/*******************************************************************************
+ * 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.compare.structuremergeviewer;
+
+/**
+ * Interface used to compare hierarchical structures.
+ * It is used by the differencing engine.
+ * <p>
+ * Clients typically implement this interface in an adaptor class which 
+ * wrappers the objects to be compared.
+ *
+ * @see org.eclipse.compare.ResourceNode
+ * @see Differencer
+ */
+public interface IStructureComparator {
+
+	/**
+	 * Returns an iterator for all children of this object or <code>null</code>
+	 * if there are no children.
+	 *
+	 * @return an array with all children of this object, or an empty array if there are no children
+	 */
+	Object[] getChildren();
+
+	/**
+	 * Returns whether some other object is "equal to" this one
+	 * with respect to a structural comparison. For example, when comparing
+	 * Java class methods, <code>equals</code> would return <code>true</code>
+	 * if two methods have the same signature (the argument names and the 
+	 * method body might differ).
+	 *
+	 * @param other the reference object with which to compare
+	 * @return <code>true</code> if this object is the same as the other argument; <code>false</code> otherwise
+	 * @see java.lang.Object#equals
+	 */
+	boolean equals(Object other);
+}