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diff --git a/src/org/apache/commons/codec/Encoder.java b/src/org/apache/commons/codec/Encoder.java
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+/*
+ * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
+ * 
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ * 
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ * 
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */ 
+
+package org.apache.commons.codec;
+
+/**
+ * <p>Provides the highest level of abstraction for Encoders.
+ * This is the sister interface of {@link Decoder}.  Every implementation of
+ * Encoder provides this common generic interface whic allows a user to pass a 
+ * generic Object to any Encoder implementation in the codec package.</p>
+ *
+ * @author Apache Software Foundation
+ * @version $Id: Encoder.java,v 1.10 2004/02/29 04:08:31 tobrien Exp $
+ */
+public interface Encoder {
+    
+    /**
+     * Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content 
+     * as an Object.  The Objects here may just be <code>byte[]</code>
+     * or <code>String</code>s depending on the implementation used.
+     *   
+     * @param pObject An object ot encode
+     * 
+     * @return An "encoded" Object
+     * 
+     * @throws EncoderException an encoder exception is
+     *  thrown if the encoder experiences a failure
+     *  condition during the encoding process.
+     */
+    Object encode(Object pObject) throws EncoderException;
+}  
+