LUMIERA.clone/src/gui/ui-bus.hpp

174 lines
7.5 KiB
C++

/*
UI-BUS.hpp - UI model and control backbone
Copyright (C) Lumiera.org
2009, Joel Holdsworth <joel@airwebreathe.org.uk>
2015, Hermann Vosseler <Ichthyostega@web.de>
This program 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 2 of
the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program 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 this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*/
/** @file ui-bus.hpp
** Under construction: the top level UI controller.
** The Lumiera GTK GUI is built around a generic backbone structure known as **UI-Bus**.
** This is a messaging system and taps into any widget of more than local relevance.
** To that end, any globally relevant (custom) widget, and all secondary controllers
** inherit from the gui::model::Tangible base. The top-level gui::UiBus element is
** a front-end and framework component managed by the [GTK-main](\ref GtkLumiera::main).
**
** @warning as of 12/2016, this is still totally a mess. This \em will remain
** the one-and-only master controller of the UI, but I am determined
** to change the architecture and implementation technique altogether.
** For the time being, we keep the controller::Controller in place, as
** written by Joel Holdsworth, while building the new UI-Bus frontend
** to take on this central role eventually.
**
** # Rationale
** The UI-Bus acts as a **mediating backbone**, impersonating the role
** of the _Model_ and the _Controler_ in the [MVC-Pattern]in common UI architecture.
**
** The MVC-Pattern as such is fine, and probably the best we know for construction of
** user interfaces. But it doesn't scale well towards the integration into a larger and
** more structured system. There is a tension between the Controller in the UI and other
** parts of an application, which as well need to be _in control._ And, even more important,
** there is a tension between the demands of UI elements for support by a model, and the
** demands to be placed on a core domain model of a large scale application. This tension is
** resolved by enacting these roles while transforming the requests and demands into _Messages._
**
** Through this architectural decision, we introduce the distinction between the _local, tangible
** UI "mechanics"_ on one side, and the common, _generic interaction patterns_ on the other side.
** The former, the mere "mechanics" of the UI shall be kept simple and reduced to immediate
** feedback and reactions to operating some interface controls. Any actual operations and
** actions relevant to the application as a whole, are to be sent as messages into the
** UI-Bus. The interface code can assume some "core services" to be available _somewhere;_
** these core services will receive the messages, act on them and _respond asynchronously._
**
** # Bus interactions
** The UI-Bus has a star shaped topology, with a central "bus master" hub, the ["Nexus"](\ref Nexus),
** which maintains a routing table. Attachment and detachment of elements can be managed automatically,
** since all of the UI-Bus operations _perform within the UI event thread._
**
** We distinguish between _up-link messages,_ directed towards some central service
** (presentation state management or command invocation) and _down-link messages,_
** directed towards individual elements. The interactions at the bus are closely interrelated
** with the [elementary UI-Element operations](tangible.hpp).
**
** - *act*: send a [GenNode] representing the action
** - in a first step, a command prototype is [outfitted](\ref InvocationTrail::bind()) with actual
** parameter values. -> see [InvocationTrail]
** - the actual command invocation is triggered by a ["bang" message](\ref InvocationTrail::bang())
** - *note*: send a [GenNode] representing the _state mark;_
** some (abstracted) presentation state manager is expected to listen to these messages,
** possibly recording state to be restored later. The contents of the _state mark_ message
** are implementation defined; knowledge about these is shared between individual widget
** implementations and (partially, to some degree) the presentation state manager.
** - *mark*: down-link communication to _feed back_ state updates or
** to replay previously recorded _state marks._
**
** @note The *mark* verb can also be used as an (future) extension point to send _generic messages_ --
** possibly even to broadcast them to interested subjects, which have been registered with the
** \ref Nexus as targeted receivers...
**
** @warning deliberately the UI-Bus is **not threadsafe**.
** Only [Tangible] elements performing in the UI-event thread are allowed to talk to the bus.
**
** @see bus-controller.hpp
** @see bus-term.hpp
** @see ctrl/nexus.hpp
** @see ctrl/core-service.hpp
**
** [MVC-Pattern]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller
**
** @todo as of 1/2015, this header needs to be reshaped ////////////////////TICKET #959
**
*/
#ifndef GUI_UI_BUS_H
#define GUI_UI_BUS_H
#include "gui/gtk-lumiera.hpp" //////////////////////////////////////////////////////TODO remove any GTK dependency if possible
#include "gui/ctrl/playback-controller.hpp"
#include <boost/noncopyable.hpp>
#include <memory>
using std::unique_ptr;
namespace gui {
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////TICKET #959 : scheduled for termination....
namespace model {
class Project;
} // namespace model
namespace controller {
/**
* @todo needs to be reshaped for communication with Proc-Layer /////////////////TICKET #959
*/
class Controller
{
model::Project& project_;
ctrl::PlaybackController playback_;
public:
Controller (model::Project&);
ctrl::PlaybackController& get_playback_controller();
};
}// namespace gui::controller
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////TICKET #959 : scheduled for termination....
namespace ctrl {
class StateManager;
class CoreService;
class BusTerm;
}
/**
* Backbone of the Lumiera GTK GUI.
* This is the Interface and Lifecycle front-end.
* When an instance of this class is created, the backbone becomes operative
* and can then be used to attach the active workspace::UiManager and similar entities.
* When it goes away, all backbone services are forced to shut down and disconnect,
* which means, that at this point, the entire UI must be decommissioned. Effectively
* this also means that the UiBus object must be run within the GTK event thread
* and must not be accessed from anywhere else.
*/
class UiBus
: boost::noncopyable
{
unique_ptr<ctrl::CoreService> coreService_;
public:
UiBus();
~UiBus();
ctrl::BusTerm& getAccessPoint();
ctrl::StateManager& getStateManager();
};
}// namespace gui
#endif /*GUI_UI_BUS_H*/