



Speedcode is of interest to MacApp programmers because it's currently being ported to platforms other than the Macintosh, because it is part of a system that makes use of code generation technology, and because it claims to be smaller and simpler than MacApp. The initial release of Oregon Software Universe 3-the development system that contains the Speedcode framework-is expected in September. A book is underway as well.
Walter Wittel is a software engineer for Microsoft, and Huan Keh is a PhD candidate at Oregon State University. Speedcode is part of Keh's PhD dissertation and Wittel's MS thesis under the direction of Ted Lewis, who is a Professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University. Their work was partially supported by Apple Computer.
This article concentrates on the framework portion, Speedcode, of OSU 3. Look for additional articles that cover other aspects of the OSU 3 system in future issues of FrameWorks.
In 1985, we formed a team of students and faculty to study ways in which programmer productivity on the Mac could be increased. Our first attempt was Oregon Speedcode Universe (OSU), which looked a lot like Prototyper or AppMaker.
Funding from Dupont corporation allowed us to improve OSU, and in 1989, we released OSU 2 to the world. Version 2 was able to connect to VideoWorks II movies, and in general made GUI programming as simple as MacDraw. But OSU 2 had severe limitations-one of which was that it generated Pascal, meaning that it couldn't take advantage of design or code reuse.
Since late 1989, we've been working long hours to produce a C++-based application framework that is somewhat portable across different GUI platforms and much more capable than OSU 2. We're now on the verge of releasing OSU 3 to the world in the form of a book and free source code. The expected first release date of the source code and minimal documentation is September 1991.
The search for the holy grail is not over, but we feel that OSU 3 is a step in the right direction. It incorporates the following tools:
We don't have enough space in this article to describe the entire OSU 3 system, so for the moment, we'll focus on the framework portion only. For brevity, we call the OSU Application Framework Speedcode.
Application Mac toolbox & C++ Speedcode & C++ Ratio ___________________________________________________________ MVC Demo 3000 300 10:1 MiniDraw Demo 7000 300 23:1 ExampleDraw 8000 300 27:1 PetrNed Editor 6000 2500 2.4:1 Browser 4700 2000 2.4:1 ____________________________________________________________
These lines-of-code estimates were obtained by comparison between the application written in C++ using the Mac Toolbox, and the same application written in C++ using Speedcode. The numbers are probably only representative of small applications.
Note that the Speedcode framework contains 16K lines of C++ itself. So the lines of code quoted in the "Speedcode with C++" column are the number of lines of code that the programmer had to add to the 16K lines of reusable code that always exists in the framework.
When function A calls function B, we say A is the caller and B is the callee. In a toolkit approach such as provided by the Mac OS, application programs are callers and toolbox routines are callees. In fact, many C++ class hierarchies have been described as frameworks, but in reality they are only toolkits. Why?
One of the most important features of a framework is that application code written by the programmer is composed of callee functions-the caller functions are all part of the framework. So, the next time you see an advertisement for a C++ framework, ask yourself, "who is the caller, and who is the callee?"
A true framework should also incorporate some paradigm or pattern of design that is used consistently throughout. A design paradigm is simply a pattern of function calls, data structures, and general program organization that obeys some rules of behavior. This is where MacApp and many other frameworks are weak; it's one of the reasons we decided to build a replacement for MacApp.
Second-and this is a major feature-Speedcode incorporates an advanced version of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm put forth by the inventors of SmallTalk. For the programmer, this means that multiple views of the same data are automatically updated whenever any change occurs to the data. So, if spreadsheet data is viewed both as a spreadsheet and a bar chart, and the user changes the data in the spreadsheet view, it is automatically changed in the bar chart view. The separation of applications into Model=Data, View=Display, and Controller=Interaction with the user, alters the paradigm of the program. Recombining the Model, View, and Controller parts of an application into a framework makes the framework much more useful than a simple class library.
Speedcode implements automatic change propagation in a variant of the MVC paradigm. This also means that Speedcode removes this detail from concern by the programmer. Thus, the Speedcode framework must be more "intelligent," and the class hierarchy must do most of the work of storing data in RAM and on disk. Note that the data storage hierarchy in the class library of Speedcode is very extensive as a consequence of this decision-but I am ahead of our story.
Now, we are ready for a formal definition of framework: An object-oriented application framework is a mixture of abstract and concrete classes along with a model of interaction and control flow among the classes. The framework has "hooks" to allow an application programmer to plug in objects that represent the functionality unique to the application. Generic features, such as handling windows, undo and redo of commands, saving and opening files, and printing-which are always found in a GUI application-are provided by the framework as reusable code.
The OSU Application Framework is written in MPW C++ and built on top of the Macintosh Toolbox. It is divided into three parts: the data structure class library, the shape class library, and the application framework classes. Figure 2 shows the class hierarchy of the OSU Application Framework.
The data structure class library is rooted at the Collection class, the shape class library is rooted at the Shape class, and others are application framework classes. The data structure class library defines general useful data structures, such as arrays, lists, and sets. The shape library supports various kinds of shapes and defines the user interface for creating and manipulating these shapes. The application framework classes define much of a Macintosh application's standard user interface, generic behavior, and operating environment. In order to show the differences between our framework, MacApp, and ET++, the simplified class hierarchies of MacApp and ET++ are also given in Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively. The Application class is much smaller than MacApp's TApplication. The Application object manages a list of all the windows used by the program, runs the main event loop, and dispatches events to the appropriate objects to handle them. The programmer will always subclass Application and each program will have one, and only one, instance of that subclass.
The Document class encapsulates the data structure or model of an application and knows how to fill the model with data. Document is not a subclass of Controller as in MacApp and ET++.
The abstract class Command not only supports Undo and Redo operations but also helps structure complex applications. The Command objects are normally pushed onto the Undo stack by Menu, Palette, or Window objects and pushed onto the Redo stack and popped off the Redo and Undo stacks by Window objects only.
Each Pane object has its own coordinate system and clips the drawing of a view to a rectangular area (the pane's frame). It also handles scrolling the view displayed inside it. Panes can be installed within other panes. This results in an hierarchical subpane/superpane relationship. The Window object can contain subpanes, and is always the topmost pane in the subpane/superpane hierarchy.
The relationship among documents, views, and windows is important. In general, a user's program follows a three-step process in creating a new domain-specific view to display the data in the model filled by a document.
First, the menu or the application object creates and initializes the window that will hold the view objects. Then, the window creates and initializes its document. Finally, the document creates and initializes the view objects.
Figure 5 shows the message flow diagram in our modified MVC paradigm. The standard interaction cycle in modified MVC can be described as follows. The Application controller is used as the top level event handler or dispatcher. When the user takes some input action, the Application controller either handles this event or dispatches it to the Menu, Palette, or the Window/Pane controller depending upon the type of the event. The Menu, Palette, or Window/Pane controller then dispatches the event to the appropriate view.
After handling the event, the view notifies the model to change itself and the model in turn broadcasts change messages to its dependent views. Views can then query the model about its new state, and update their display if necessary.
Our solution to this problem is to implement a standard shape library that can be used in any application that manipulates shapes (see Figure 7). The class hierarchy of the shape library is rooted at the Shape class shown in Figure 2. Our shape library handles various kinds of shapes, so that it is usable in a variety of applications. It also allows the programmer to customize and extend the way shapes are manipulated through subclassing.
When a model sends the ModelUpdated() message to a view, the view sends a ViewUpdate() message to all the panes in its superPaneList. The pane in turn "focuses" the view and calls its DrawContents() method. If the view is visible, its Draw() method is called and drawing takes place on the screen within the bounds of the clip region.
MouseDown events are converted by the template method DoMouseCommand() to single, double, triple clicks, or drags and dispatched to the appropriate abstract view methods which are expected to be overridden in subclasses such as domain-specific views or user-written subclasses of View. These methods include DoSingleClick(), DODoubleClick(), DoTripleClick(), and DoDrag(). Note that the template method DoMouseCommand() may be overridden if the programmer wants to handle any unusual mouse actions. KeyDown events are handled in a similar manner. The Application Class The Application class manages a list of all the windows used by the program, runs the main event loop, and dispatches events to the appropriate objects to handle them. The programmer will always subclass Application; and each program will have one, and only one, instance of that subclass. At a minimum, the abstract method CreateMenus() must be overwritten in the subclass to create a MenuBar object and install the application's menu objects into it.
When the application class is instantiated (the first action in the GUI application's C++ function "main"), its constructor initializes the Macintosh Toolbox routines. The abstract method Initialize() is usually overridden in the subclass of Application to perform domain-specific initialization. As the application program starts, the template method Run() of the Application class invokes the Initialize() and CreateMenus() methods and then starts the main event loop.
The FileDocument class manages the logic of putting up dialogs to get file names to open (load from disk) and save. It also puts up a dialog that asks the user if a modified file document (really the model's data) should be saved before closing. FileDocument defines the abstract methods DoRead() and DoWrite() which are usually overridden in subclasses. A file document is usually created by the CreateDocument() method of the Window class.
Panes are initialized with a location and size which positions them within the enclosing window, and if the pane is a leaf, the number of scroll bars and a pointer to the view. Each pane has a pane rectangle that encloses the entire pane and is framed by a one pixel line. Inset one pixel within this pane rectangle is a view rectangle that defines the clipping region when drawing the view. If the pane has a vertical or horizontal scroll bar, then the appropriate edges of the view rectangle are inset further.
When a MouseDown is received by a window, it is passed along to the root pane. If the pane has scroll bars, and the MouseDown was enclosed in one of their rectangles, the DoMouseDown message is passed along to the scroll bar object. Otherwise, the MouseDown is passed to the view, or to the appropriate subpane, whichever is enclosed in the pane. If the user scrolls a view, the framework calculates a new offset for the view, scrolls the bits within the view rectangle on the screen, and updates (redraws using the new origin) the area filled with the background color after the screen bits are scrolled.
Another function provided by the Pane class is bringing panes and views into "focus." FocusPane() is invoked before a pane is adorned (framed with a one pixel line and the scroll bars redrawn). The FocusPane() method sets the graphics port to the correct (enclosing) window, sets the clip rectangle to the pane's rectangle, and draws the frame and scroll bars. In a similar manner, FocusView() sets the port, but also takes into account both the local location of the pane and the amount it is currently scrolled to calculate the clip rectangle.
Calculating new values for the pane rectangle, view rectangle, and scroll bars is done automatically when a window is resized or zoomed if the pane it encloses is initialized to "sizeVariable." Usually panes within panes are initialized to "SizeFixed."
All this takes place without the need for the user to write any code or subclass the Pane class. Every pane is simply an instance of the framework's Pane class. The user may, at times, wish to override the Adorn(), MouseInPane(), and DoSetupMenus() methods to customize the panes behavior.
You generally use many different subclasses of Command-one for each type of user action that you want to be undoable, such as typing characters, mouse operations like drawing and dragging, and menu or palette items like Delete and Rotate. Command objects should be used when the user action will change data in the model of the application.
Command objects are created by several methods in a View object in response to an event. These methods include DoMouseCommand(), DoKeyCommand(), and several other menu/palette item related methods such as DoCut(). Command objects are stored in the Redo and Undo stacks defined in the Window class.
Newly created Command objects are executed and managed by Window, MenuBar or Palette objects. Typing and mouse command objects are managed and executed by the Window class; menu command objects are managed and executed by the MenuBar class; palette command objects are managed and executed by the Palette class.
Command objects which have been undone or redone are managed by Window objects only. Three abstract methods-DoIt(), UndoIt(), and RedoIt()-are often overridden in subclasses to implement undoable commands.
Application programs never perform commands directly, but simply instantiate commands objects and pass them to the framework. A menu command, for example, is automatically invoked by the template method HandleMenuCommand() defined in the MenuBar class.
The abstract class Command is a very good example of the reuse of an abstract design. It not only eases the implementation process substantially but also helps the programmer to modularize complex applications into small and more manageable pieces.
The template method Undo() undoes the command on the top of the Undo stack. After a command is undone, it is popped off the Undo stack and then pushed onto the Redo Stack. The template method Redo() redoes the command on the top of the Redo stack. After a command is redone, it is popped off the Redo stack and then pushed onto the Undo Stack.
The Window object is also responsible for creating the document object and subpanes. The abstract methods CreateDocument() and CreateSubpanes() must be overridden in subclasses to create the document and subpanes in the Window object. The Menu Class The abstract class Menu implements standard menu operations such as enabling and checking menu items, and provides default behavior for handling menu commands. The abstract method DoMenuCommand() must be overridden in subclasses to dispatch menu commands to the appropriate View methods. DoMenuCommand() will be invoked by the template method HandleMenuCommand() of the MenuBar class. The abstract method DoSetupMenus() is often overridden in subclasses to enable or check menu items.
The template method HandleMenuCommand() executes the menu command by invoking the abstract method DoIt() which is overridden in the subclass of Command. If it is an undoable command, it is pushed onto the undo stack of the frontmost window object. When there is a MouseDown event in the menu region, HandleMenuCommand() is invoked by another template method, DoMouseDownEvt(), defined in the Application class. In most cases, the programmer is not required to subclass MenuBar.
The template method DoMouseDown() executes the palette command by invoking the abstract method DoIt(), which is overridden in the subclass of Command, and pushes it onto the undo stack of the frontmost window object if it is an undoable command. The abstract method DoMouseCommand() must be overridden in subclasses to dispatch palette commands to the appropriate View methods.
The GraphicsView class overrides the abstract methods DoSingleClick(), DoDoubleClick(), DoTripleClick(), and DoDrag() defined in its abstract superclass View to support standard mouse actions. To create simple drawing programs, the programmer can directly instantiate GraphicsView objects. Also, the programmer can subclass GraphicsView to implement application-specific operations such as checking the consistency of a graph diagram.
Standard document operations, such as opening and closing files and putting up dialogs to get file names or to ask the user if a modified file should be saved before closing, are inherited from the abstract superclass FileDocument.
The source for a minimal sample application, MiniDraw, appears in the following listing. Look for additional articles that cover other aspects of OSU 3, and provide more extensive source code examples, in future issues of FrameWorks. n
A Minimal SAMPLE Application: MINIDRAW
// Test by Chih Lai, 06/29/91
#ifndef CLAPPLICATION_H
#include "clapplication.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLMENU_H
#include "clmenu.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLMODEL_H
#include "clmodel.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLWINDOW_H
#include "clwindow.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLVIEW_H
#include "clview.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLPALETTE_H
#include "clpalette.h"
#endif
#ifndef __DESK__
#include <Desk.h>
#endif
#ifndef __QUICKDRAW__
#include <Quickdraw.h>
#endif
#ifndef CLCollection_First
#include "CLCollection.h"
#endif
#include "cldialog.h"
#include <textedit.h>
#include <dialogs.h>
#include <traps.h>
#ifndef CLDOCUMENT_H
#include "cldocument.h"
#endif
#ifndef CLGraphicsView_H
#include "a_clGraphicsView.h"
#endif
#define MAX_MENU_OBJ 4
#define BASE_MENU_ID 256
#define WIND_ID 256
CLGraphicsView *myView1;
CLGraphicsView *myView2;
//
// MyWindow
//
class MyWindow : public CLWindow {
public:
MyWindow():(WIND_ID) {};
class CLDocument * CreateDocument();
void CreateSubPanes();
};
CLDocument * MyWindow::CreateDocument() {
return new CLGraphicsDocument(this,'TEXT','MINI');
}
void MyWindow::CreateSubPanes() {
CLPane *myPane1;
CLView *aView;
Point thePaneSize, theLocation;
SetPt(&thePaneSize, fWindPtr->
portRect.right, fWindPtr->portRect.bottom);
SetPt(&theLocation, 0, 0);
myPane1 = new CLPane(this, this, false, true);
aView = GetViewByName("MyView1");
myView1 = (CLGraphicsView*)aView ;
myPane1->ICLPane(&thePaneSize, &theLocation, 3, aView);
AddSubPane(myPane1);
}
//
// MyFileMenu
//
class MyFileMenu : public CLMenu {
public:
class CLCommand * DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber) ;
MyFileMenu():(BASE_MENU_ID + 1) {}
};
class CLCommand * MyFileMenu::DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber)
{
class MyWindow * aWindowObj ;
CheckOnlyItem(pItemNumber);
switch (pItemNumber) {
case 1 :
MyWindow * myWind = new MyWindow;
myWind->Initialize();
myWind->Draw();
break ;
case 2 :
aWindowObj =
(MyWindow *)
(gApplication->GetWindowObject(FrontWindow()));
if (aWindowObj)
aWindowObj -> DoOpen();
break ;
case 5 :
aWindowObj =
(MyWindow *)
(gApplication->GetWindowObject(FrontWindow()));
if (aWindowObj)
aWindowObj -> DoSave();
break ;
case 12 :
gApplication->Terminate();
break ;
}
return 0 ;
}
//
// MyEditMenu
//
class MyEditMenu : public CLMenu {
public:
class CLCommand * DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber) ;
MyEditMenu():(BASE_MENU_ID + 2) {}
};
class CLCommand * MyEditMenu::DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber)
{
switch (pItemNumber) {
case 1 :
// not a command object, user can't undo
myView1->Undo() ;
break ;
case 3 :
return myView1->Cut() ;
case 5 :
return myView1->Paste() ;
case 8 :
// not a command object, user can't undo
myView1->SelectAll() ;
}
return 0 ;
}
//
// MyPatternMenu
//
class MyPatternMenu : public CLMenu {
public:
class CLCommand * DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber) ;
MyPatternMenu():(BASE_MENU_ID + 3) {}
};
class CLCommand * MyPatternMenu::DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber)
{
switch (pItemNumber) {
case 1 : // Black
return myView1->SetPattern(qd.black) ;
case 2 : // White
return myView1->SetPattern(qd.white) ;
case 3 : // Gray
return myView1->SetPattern(qd.gray) ;
case 4 : // LightGray
return myView1->SetPattern(qd.ltGray) ;
}
}
//
// MyAppleMenu
//
class MyAppleMenu : public CLMenu {
private:
Str255 name;
short temp;
CLUserAlert *aboutMini;
public:
class CLCommand * DoMenuCommand(short pItemNumber)
{
if (pItemNumber == 1) {
aboutMini = new CLUserAlert(128);
aboutMini->Draw();
delete aboutMini;
}
else {
GetItem(fMenuHandle,pItemNumber,name);
temp = OpenDeskAcc(name);
}
return 0;
};
public:
MyAppleMenu():(BASE_MENU_ID) {}
};
//
// MyPalette
//
class MyPalette : public CLPalette {
public :
MyPalette(short pPaletteId):(pPaletteId) { };
class CLCommand * DoMouseCommand(short pItemHit);
};
CLCommand * MyPalette::DoMouseCommand(short pItemHit){
short ShapeTool ;
switch (pItemHit) {
case 1 :
ShapeTool = selectionTool ;
break ;
case 2 :
ShapeTool = Rectangle ;
break ;
case 3 :
ShapeTool = RoundRect ;
break ;
case 4 :
ShapeTool = Oval ;
break ;
case 5 :
ShapeTool = Line ;
break ;
case 6 :
ShapeTool = ArrowLine ;
break ;
case 7 :
ShapeTool = Diamond ;
break ;
case 8 :
ShapeTool = Label ;
break ;
}
myView1->CLSetCurrentShapeTool(ShapeTool) ;
return CLPalette::DoMouseCommand(pItemHit);
};
//
// MyApplication
//
class MyApplication : public CLApplication {
public :
CLMenuBar * CreateMenus();
void Initialize();
};
CLMenuBar * MyApplication::CreateMenus(){
CLMenu * aMenuObj;
CLMenuBar * aMenuBarObj = new CLMenuBar;
aMenuObj = new MyAppleMenu();
aMenuObj->AddRsrc();
aMenuBarObj->AddMenu(aMenuObj);
aMenuObj = new MyFileMenu;
aMenuBarObj->AddMenu(aMenuObj);
aMenuObj = new MyEditMenu;
aMenuBarObj->AddMenu(aMenuObj);
aMenuObj = new MyPatternMenu;
aMenuBarObj->AddMenu(aMenuObj);
aMenuBarObj->CheckMenuItem(257, 2);
return aMenuBarObj;
};
void MyApplication::Initialize() {
MyPalette * myPalette1 = new MyPalette(128);
myPalette1->Draw();
MyWindow * myWind = new MyWindow;
myWind->Initialize();
myWind->Draw();
}
main(){
MyApplication * myApp = new MyApplication;
myApp->Run();
return 0;
}
End of listing.



