search with distance only valid for Rtree of rectangle or point

[davidmoten]

For example if you have

RTree<String, Circle> tree = RTree.create();
...
double maxDistance = 10;
entries = tree.search(rectangle, maxDistance);

Then the entries returned have mbrs within maxDistance rather than being exactly within maxDistance of the entry circles.

A fix for this will require an API change where the distance function is passed to the method.

[davidmoten]

a complication is that the distance function is also used against the mbr of a node as well rather than just against the entry types. Introduce a container type that the distance function operates on? E.g Rectangle is a Container of everything and a Geometry subclass is a container of itself. Then distance function defined on Container.

[davidmoten]

had a closer look, this is not a problem because every Geometry implementation has to implement distance to a rectangle and search with distance can only be done with a Rectangle or Point parameter (which is also a Rectangle with zero width and height).