/* java.lang.ref.SoftReference
   Copyright (C) 1999, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

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02110-1301 USA.

Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
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permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
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package java.lang.ref;

/**
 * A soft reference will be cleared, if the object is only softly
 * reachable and the garbage collection needs more memory.  The garbage
 * collection will use an intelligent strategy to determine which soft
 * references it should clear.  This makes a soft reference ideal for
 * caches.<br>
 *
 * @author Jochen Hoenicke
 */
public class SoftReference<T>
  extends Reference<T>
{
  /**
   * Create a new soft reference, that is not registered to any queue.
   * @param referent the object we refer to.
   */
  public SoftReference(T referent)
  {
    super(referent);
  }

  /**
   * Create a new soft reference.
   * @param referent the object we refer to.
   * @param q the reference queue to register on.
   * @exception NullPointerException if q is null.
   */
  public SoftReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue<? super T> q)
  {
    super(referent, q);
  }

  /**
   * Returns the object, this reference refers to.
   * @return the object, this reference refers to, or null if the
   * reference was cleared.
   */
  public T get()
  {
    /* Why is this overloaded???
     * Maybe for a kind of LRU strategy. */
    return super.get();
  }
}