obsoleted by C++11
* in most cases, it can be replaced by an explicit conversion operator
* especially for the Lumiera Forward Iterators, we need an implicit conversion
This changeset fixes a huge pile of problems, as indicated in the
error log of the Doxygen run after merging all the recent Doxygen improvements
unfortunately, auto-linking does still not work at various places.
There is no clear indication what might be the problem.
Possibly the rather unstable Sqlite support in this Doxygen version
is the cause. Anyway, needs to be investigated further.
this is indeed a change of concept.
A 'command instance' can not be found through the official
Command front-end anymore, since we do not create a registration.
This allows us to avoid decorating command IDs with running counters
interesting new twist: we do not even need to decorate with a running number,
since we'll get away with an anonymous command instance, thanks to Command
being a smart-handle
it is not *that* hard to behave in a somewhat sane manner here.
And even more: this *is* basically the symbol table implementation we need.
Thus we only need to build the right front-end now...
...otherwise our log will be flooded with command definition messages soon
NOTE: to see all command definitions happening, set into environment:
NOBUG_LOG='command:TRACE
this is a prerequisite for command instance management:
We have now an (almost) complete framework for writing actual
command definitions in practice, which will be registered automatically.
This could be complemented (future work) by a script in the build process
to regenerate proc/cmd.hpp based on the IDs of those automatic definitions.
...better make it noncopyable to enforce the builder-style use.
In the recent test, I observed strange behaviour when erroneously passing
the CommandDef by value; the command seemed to be registered just fine,
but afterwards, the registry was empty. I must admit I don't understand
this, just from reading the code in CommandDef and Command it should
work just fine to activate a copy of the originally started CommandDef;
anyway, I didn't care to track that issue down, rather make the
CommandDef noncopyable as it should have been right from start.
...since there is not any test coverage for this trait, which
turned out to be quite deeply rooted in the system by now and
handles several rather subtle special cases
...and move the tail-call of the template instantiation into try.cpp
This experiment clearly shows the discrepancy now:
- binding a member pointer directly into a function object will expand the argument list
- but binding a similar lambda into a function object won't
(it is not necessary due to the context capture)
The result is that we need to drop support for one of those cases,
and it is clear that the member poiter will be the looser...
As a first step towards a gradual rework of our function metaprogramming helpers,
this change prepends a generic case for all kinds of functors to our existing
solution, which up to now was entirely based on explicit specialisations.
C++11 supplied the new language construct 'decltype(EXPR)', which allows us
to capture any class with an function operator, which also includes the Lambdas.
The solution was proposed 2011 on StackOverflow
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7943525/is-it-possible-to-figure-out-the-parameter-type-and-return-type-of-a-lambda/7943765#7943765
We used it already with success within our TreeMutator.
But obviously the goal should be to unite all the function trait / metaprogramming helpers,
which unfortunately is a more expensive undertaking, since it also involves
to get rid of the explicit specialisations and retrofit our Types<XXX...> helper
to rely on variadic templates rather than on loki-style typelists.
This first step here is rather conservative, since we'll still rely on our
explicit specialisations in most cases. Only the Lambdas will go through the
new, generic case, and from there invoke the specialisation for member functions.
The latter need to be rectified as well, which is subject of the next changeset...
The point in question is how to manage these definitions in practice,
since we're about to create a huge lot of them eventually. The solution
attempted here is heavily inspired by the boost-test framework
...because this topic serves as a vehicle to elaborate various core concepts
of the UI backbone, especially how to access, bind and invoke Proc-Layer commands
this pretty much resolves most of the uncertainities:
we now get a set of mutually dependent services, each of which
is aware of each other member's capabilities, but accesses those
only through this partner's API
Idea is to use the window list, which should hold any workspace window
ever created, and pick the first one marked as 'active' by GTK
(whatever that means)
After quite some pondering, it occured to me that we both
- need some top-level model::Tangible to correspond to the RootMO in the session
- need some Controller to handle globally relevant actions
- need a way to link action invocation to transient interaction state (like focus)
This leads to the introduction of a new top-level controller, which is better
suited to fill that role than the depreacted model-controller or the demoted window-manager
looks like we're in management business here ;-)
we chop off heads, slaughter the holy cows and then install -- a new manager
...allows us to get rid of a lot of sigc boilerplate syntax.
The downside is that the resulting functors are not sigc::trackable.
This seems adequate here, since the whole top-level UI backbone is
maintained by GtkLumiera, and thus ensured to exist as long as the
main GTK event loop is running.
WARNING: beware of creating "wild" background thrads in the UI, without
proper scheduling of any communication via the event loop!
no need for a further translation unit,
rather, definition of global menu now becomes part of the
ui-manager.cpp translation unit, which allows for some additional
inlining and simplifications by the compiler
it turns out to be essentially an implementation detail,
it is a builder class and it acts as closure for the bound
menu actions, but it is not accessed after initialisation.
This allows to reduce the header inclusion load significantly
This is a very pervasive change and basically turns the whole top-level
of the GTK-UI bottom-up. If this change turns out right, it would likely
solve #1048
WARNING: in parts not implemented, breaks UI
...which itself is obsolete and needs to be redesigned from scratch.
For now we create a local instance of this obsolete PlaybackController
in each viewer panel and we use a static accessor function to just some
instance. Which would break if we start playback with multiple viewer
panels. But we can't anyway, since the Player itself is also a broken
leftover from an obsoleted design study from the early days.
so why care...
unfortunately boost/program-options make the boost reference-wrapper visible
And it doesn't help to alias to std::ref at the definition site of the
problematic function (in TimeControl), because this itself is picked up
via ADL
So this is not really a solution, rather a workaround, in the hope
that boost will clean-up this ambiguity eventually
as a rule, one should not rely on "using namespace xyz",
since this makes organisation of minimal header includes near impossible.
You end up with mass includes in some "top level" headers, resulting
in painfully slow compilation turnaround times.
In exceptional cases, using namespace foo might be adequate though
- WindowList (ex WindowManager)
- Project & Controller
the latter ones are defunct and can be replicated down into each
of the old timeline pannel instances. They just serve the purpose
to keep this old code barely functional, so it can be used as reference
for building the new timeline
There seems to be a mismatch in the arrangement of the top-level entities
* we support multiple windows, yet from reading the code, you'd ge the impression we aren't really aware we have multiple top-level windows
* the `WindowManager` is the core UI manager, which feels like a mix-up in concerns
* the `WorkspaceWindow::createUI()` does the global UI initialisation. Again, we have multiple workspace windows.
* `GtkLumiera::main()` creates a `Model` and a `Controller` in local function scope, but stores the `WindowManager` in an object field.
* it seems, for that very reason, `GtlLumiera` needed to be a singleton, to allow by-name access to "the" `WindowManager`
* needless to say, this causes a host of problems when shutting down the UI.
The idea is to introduce a dedicated UiManager, to deal with the central
framework induced concerns solely, and to demote the WindowManager and the
WorkspaceWindows to care only for their local concerns
in fact it just does not fulfil any of the behavioural properties
of a full-fledged UI-Element. All it needs is an uplink bus connection,
so let's just keep it as that
Sidenote: I've realised today that such a "free standing" BusTerm
without registration in Nexus is a good idea and acceptable solution.
yes, it's a cycle and indeed quite tricky.
Just verified it (again) with the debugger and saw all
dtor calls happening in the expected order. Also the number
of Nexus registration is sane
Now I've realised that there are two degrees of connectedness.
It is very much possible to have a "free standing" BusTerm, which
only allows to send uplink messages. In fact, this is how CoreService
is implemented, and probably it should also the way how to connect
the GuiNotification service...
due to investigating that Heisenbug, I understand the storage layout
more clearly. It occured to me that there is no reason to copy the
terminationHandler (functor) into an instance variable, since it is
easily possible to keep all of the invocation and error handling
confined within the scope of the run function, i.e. on stack.
So the effective memory layout does not change, but the legibility
of the code is improved, since we're able to remove the dtor and
simplyfy the ctor and avoid most of the member fields.
Reason was some insideous detail regarding Lambdas:
When a Lambda captures context, a *closure* is created.
And while the Lambda itself is generated code, pretty much
like an anonymous function, the closure depends on the context
that was captured. In our case here, the Lambda used to start
the thread was the problem: it captured the termCallback functor
from the argument of the enclosing function. In fact it did not
help or change anything if we successively package that lambda
into a function objet and store this by value, because the
lambda still refers to the transient function context present
on stack at the moment it was captured.
The solution is to revert back to a bind expression, since this
creates a dedicated storage for the bound function arguments
managed within the bind-functor. This makes us independent
from the call context
...because some Bus connections stem from elements which are
member of CoreService, thus the'll still be connected when the
sanity check in the dtor runs
But even with this fix, we still get a SEGFAULT
TODO
- is this actually a sensible idea, from a design viewpoint?
- in which way to bind GuiNotification for receiving diff messages?
- Problem with disconnnecting from Nexus on shutdown
Writing and debugging such tests is always an interesting challenge...
Fortunately this exercise didn't unveil any problem in the newly written
code, only some insidious problems in the test fixture itself. Which
again highlights the necessity, that each *command instance* needs
to be an independent clone from the original *command prototype*,
since argument binding messages and trigger messages can appear
in arbitrary order.
This is a little bit of functionality needed again and again;
first I thought to use the TypedCounter, but this would be overkill,
since we do not actually need different instances, and we do not need
to select by type when incrementing the counter. In fact, we do not
even need anything beyond just allocating a number.
So I made a new class, which can be used RAII style
the intention is to cover more of the full invocation path,
without running all of the application infrastructure. So this
second test cases simulates how messages are handled in CoreService,
where the CommandHandler (visitor) actually invokes the SessionCommand
facade
this was a spin-off activity from writing the SessionCommand
function(integration) test, where I noted that we can't just
capture "a time value" as command memento
basically this is not necessary, since the compiler figures out
to use the conversion to target type when attempting to resolve
an equality comparison. But it helps to avoid ambiguities in cases
where several conversion paths do exist, e.g. when comparing string
with C-string
explicitly observed with the debugger that the call path is sane;
the code looks innocuous, but it is quite magic how the compiler
picks precisely the right ctors and inserts conversions apropriately
command processing against the session is not yet implemented,
so to allow for unit testing, we magically recognise all commands
starting with "test." and invoke them directly within the Dispatcher.
With this addition, the basic functionality of the dispatcher works now
From a purely logical viewpoint, it looked sensible to require an actual
value for an offset, especially since our time values are immutable.
But this has the unfortunate consequence that we'd be unable to use
an offset value as parameter for any command, since we store the arguments
as tuple and the tuple type has a default constructor. We might be able
to get around that problem, but such looks brittle to me; it is just
plain surprising for anyone not familiar with the internals of the
command system.
For that reason, I've now added a default ctor to the Offset type
not quite sure how to get the design straight.
Also a bit concerned because we'll get this much indirections;
the approach to send invocations via the UI-Bus needs to prove its viability
...since the session loop will be notified on any change via the
interface, adding a command will activate the loop, and the builder
timeout is handled separately via the dirty state. So there is no
need to spin around the loop in idle state.
As a aside, timeout waiting on a condition variable can be intentional
and should thus not be logged as an error automatically. It is up to the
calling context to decide if a timeout constitutes an exceptional situation.
It is always a trade-off performance vs. readability.
Sometimes a single-threaded implementation of self-contained logic
is preferable to a slightly more performant yet obscure implementation
based on our threadpool and scheduler.
Did a full review of state and locking logic, seems airtight now.
- command processing itself is unimplemented, we log a TODO message for now
- likewise, builder is not implemented
- need to add the deadlock safeguard #1054
Due to object scoping we can conclude reliably that the only one
ever to delete the DispacherLoop object will be the the loop thread
from within this object itself, when invoking the termination callback.
Btw, the lock on the inner object was insufficient and will be
replaced by taking the outer lock
We found out that it's best to run it single threaded
within the session loop thread. This does not mean the Builder
itself is necessarily single threaded, but the Builder's top level
will block any other session operation, and this is a good thing.
For this reason it makes more sense to have the Builder integrated
as a component into the session subsystem.
It turns out we *do* support the use of anonymous commands
(while it is not clear yet if we really need this feature).
Basically, client code may either create and register a new
instance from another command used as prototype, by invoking
Command::storeDef(ID). Or, alternatively it may just invoke
newInstance() on the command, which creates a new handle
and a valid new implementation (managed by the handle as
smart-ptr), but never stores this implementation into the
CommandRegistry. In that case, client code may use such a
command just fine, as long as it cares to hold onto that
handle; but it is not possible to retrieve this command
instance later by symbolic ID.
In the light of this (possible) usage pattern, it doesn't
make sense to throw when accessing a command-ID. Rather, we
now return a placeholder-Symbol ("_anonymous_")
And yes, this warning is for real, while the compiler has no way
to decide if there is actual danger lurking. A type with internal
linkage (e.g. defined in an anonymous namespace) will be treated
by the linker as a separate entity on each encounter (i.e. in
each distinct compilation unit). When multiple translation units
start collaborating on such a type, they *might* be referring
to different memory locations, while semantically the intention
is to refer to the same location.
And since we're dealing with a library facility here, *we* have
likewise now power to ensure proper usage, so we better be cautious.
after reading some related code, I am leaning towards a design
to mirror the way command messages are sent over the UI-Bus.
Unfortunately this pretty much abandons the possibility to
invoke these operations from a client written in C or any
other hand made language binding. Which pretty much confirms
my initial reservation towards such an excessively open
and generic interface system.
...this means to turn Looper into a state machine.
Yet it seems more feasible, since the DispatcherLoop has a nice
checkpoint after each iteration through the while loop, and we'd
keep that whole builder-dirty business completely confined within
the Looper (with a little help of the DispatcherLoop)
Let's see if the state transition logic can actually be implemented
based just on such a checkpoint....?
....if by some weird coincidence, a command dispatched into the session
happens to trigger session shutdown or re-loading, this will cause a deadlock,
since decommissioning of session data structures must wait for the
ProcDispatcher to disable command processing -- and this will obviously
never happen when in a callstack below some command execution!
After some consideration, it became clear that this service implementation
is closely tied to the DispatcherLoop -- which will consequently be
responsible to run and expose this service implementation
need to keep state variables on both levels,
since the session manager (lifecycle) "opens" the session
for external access by starting the dispatcher; it may well happen
thus that the session starts up, while the *session subsystem*
is not(yet) started
"command dispatching" == the public session interface
so we'll better implement this important causal link directly,
instead of some obscure trickery with lifecycle events.
turns out that I've created a race and consistency problem
just by a silly idiotic fixation on performance. Never ever
leave out a lock to "improve" performance, mind me.
mark TODOs in code to make that happen.
Actually, it is not hard to do so, it just requires to combine
all the existing building blocks. When this is done, we can define
the "Session" subsystem as prerequisite for "GUI" in main.cpp
Unless I've made some (copy-n-paste) mistake with defining the facades,
this should be sufficient to pull up "the Session" and automatically
let the Gui-Plugin connect against the SessionCommandService
...the sheer amount of mechanical replacements scattered all over these
files might be a vivid indication, that the design of the interface system
is subobptimal ;-)
up to now this happened from the GuiRunner, which was a rather bad idea
- it can throw and thus interfer with the startup process
- the GuiNotification can not sensibly be *implemented* just backed
by the GuiRunner. While CoreService offers access to the necessary
implementation facilities to do so
so the true reason is an inner contradiction in the design
- I want it to be completely self similar
- but the connection to CoreService does not conform
- and I do not want to hard code CoreService into the Nexus classdefinition
So we treat CoreService as uplink für Nexus and Nexus as uplink for CoreService,
with the obvious consequences that we're f**ed at init and shutdown.
And since I want to retain the overall design, I resort to implement
a short circuit detector, which suppresses circular deregistration calls
Decision was made to use the CoreService as PImpl to organise
all those technical aspects of running the backbone. Thus,
the Nexus (UI-Bus hub) becomes part of CoreService
...problem is, I actually don't know much about what kinds of markers
we'll get, and how we handle them. Thus introducing a marker kind
is just a wild guess, in order to get *any* tangible attribute
Phew, convoluted.
And I was doubtful that we need to support multiple typed child collection
Well, we get three such collections already in the first real world example...
...it occurred to me that very likely a casual reader of the code
will encounter here the first instance of such a diff binding function.
I am well aware this looks intimidating (and it is a tricky technical detail)
Even more so, if what you expect is just some access to a shared data model,
you might be completely puzzled by this code and nor recognise its importance.
this is a tricky problem and a tough decision.
After quite some pondering I choose to enforce mandatory fields
through the ctor, and not to allow myself cheating my way around it
it occurred to me that effectively we abandoned the use of
a business facade and proxy model in the UI. The connection
becomes entirely message based now.
To put that into context, the originally intended architecture
never came to life. The UI development stalled before this could
happen; possibly it was also hampered by the "impedance mismatch"
between our intentions in the core and such a classical, model centric
architecture. Joel several times complained that he felt blocked; but
I did not really understand this issue. Only recently, when I came to
adapting the timeline display to GTK-3, I realised the model centric
approach can not possibly work with such an open model as intended
in our case. It would lead to endless cascades of introspection.
...shows again why its not adwisable to use wildcard namespace include.
Well, the old timeline code is going away soon, and for the rewritten new one,
we'll learn from such structural problems
these are just empty class files, but writing a basic description
for each made me flesh out a lot of organisational aspects of what
I am about to build now
