#PROJECT "Compound - Status" DOCUMENTATION WRITTEN BY WILLIAM PASCAL
#
#THIS PROJECT IS COMPILED UNDER "C99 ISO/IEC 9899:1999" WITH
#"gcc (GCC) 13.2.1 20230801"
#PLEASE NOTE THAT THE VERSION TO THE COMPILER MAY CHANGE DURING PROJECT
#DEVELOPMENT, IT IS UNCERTAIN, SO FAR, THAT EVERY COMPILER OLDER/NEWER THAT
#THIS VERSION COULD COMPILE PROPERLY.  MS WINDOWS SUPPORT IS UNDER
#CONSIDERATION WHILE DEVELOPMENT FOR GNU/LINUX HAS HIGHER PRIORITY.

LICENSE NOTICE:
    This file is part of Compound.
    Compound is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
  the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
  Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
  version.
    Compound is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
  WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
  FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
  details.
    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
  with Compound. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 

BRIEF:
  "STATUS" REPRESENT THE ACTUAL PROCESS STATUS OF THE FUNCTION APPLIED TO USE
  THIS STRUCTURE AS THE RETURNING TYPE.

DECLARATION:
  STRUCTURE - STATUS
  IT COMES WITH FOLLOWING MEMBERS:
    i.  value: int
    
      "VALUE" INDICATES THE VALUE THAT FUNCTION RETURNS.  MORE USUALLY, THIS
      VALUE IS IGNORED WHEN "CHARACTERISTIC" IS NOT "STATUS_UNKNOWN" AS AN
      ALTERNATIVE FOR LEGACY FUNCTIONS WHICH DO NOT USE "int" FOR THEIR
      RETURNING.

    ii.  description: char*
    
      "DESCRIPTION" TELLS THE SITUATION, USUALLY NOT NORMAL, WHERE THE FUNCTION
      HAD RUN INTO CERTAIN PROBLEMS DURING THE PROCESS.  IT CAN BE USEFUL WHEN
      DEBUGGING AND SUCH.
      
      *PLEASE NOTE, AN EMPTY DESCRIPTION ALONG WITH A NULL DESCRIPTION IS
      REGARDED AS "MEANINGLESS ONE" WHICH DOES NOT DOING ANYTHING EFFECTIVE FOR
      ANYONE.  DESCRIPTIONS CAN BE VALIDATED WITH FUNCTION `StatusUtils_IsValid`.
      
    iii.  characteristic: int
    
      "CHARACTERISTIC" INDICATED THE BASIC NATURE OF CURRENT "STATUS".
      
      *GO SEE  enum StatusCharacteristics FOR AVAILABLE "CHARACTERISTICS".

    iv.  prev: struct _Status*
    
      "PREV" STANDS FOR "PREVIOUS STATUS".  JUST AS THE NAME TELLS, THIS MEMBER
      POINTS AT THE PREVIOUS STRUCTURE OF STATUS WHERE THIS STATUS IS BASED ON.
      
      THIS MEMBER IS USUALLY USED FOR PRINTING CALLING STACKS.
      
      IN SOME CASES, THIS MEMBER COULD POINT AT IT SELF, MEANING IT COULD MAKE
      A RECURSIVE SITUATION WHERE IT REQUIRE EXTRA EXAMINATIONS BEFORE GOING TO
      THE ADDRESS IT POINTS AT.  THESE PROBLEMS CAN BE AVOIDED WITH FUNCTION
      `StatusUtils_IsRecursive` CALLED AHEAD.
      
      *GO SEE  StatusUtils_Dump
StatusUtils_Dump FOR DETAILS ABOUT DUMPING CALLING STACKS.
      *GO SEE  StatusUtils_IsRecursive FOR DETERRING RECURSIVE "PREV".

SYNONYM:
  Status funcname1(void *param);
  Status *funcname2(void);

VARIANT SYNONYM:
  int funcname1(Status stat);
  void funcname2(Status *stats);



typedef struct _Status {
  int value;  /* Traditional returning data "int".  Only used when the function
                 called and received legacy functions that uses "int" as the
                 returning type that wish to have place to hold the value.
                 Otherwise, the function would just return the structure Status. */
  char *description;
  int characteristic;
  struct _Status *prev;
} Status;
