DELEGATES and C++

Environment: [eg VC6 SP4, W98 W2K NT …]

Presentation:


This article shows an implementation of delegates. What is a delegate? An object
that acts like a multi-function pointer with a subscription system. It really
simplifies the use of static or ‘object’ member function pointers for callback
notifications and event handling. While implementation is a bit complicated, the
use is very intuitive:

Quick Sample:


class CFoo {
public:

// declaration of member callback
void Foo( int );

};

// declaration of static callback
void Foo( int i );

void main( ) {

CFoo obj;

// Declare a delegate for functions
// with one argument of type int

CDelegate1< int > delegate;

// Add Foo static function
delegate.Add( Foo );
// Add Foo member function based on foo object
delegate.Add( obj, CFoo::Foo );

// Execute the callbacks
delegate( 0 );

// Remove Foo static function
delegate.Remove( Foo );
// Remove Foo member function
delegate.Remove( obj, CFoo::Foo );

}

How to?


You just have to add the headers to your project and include the “Delegates.h” header
in your C++ code (in stdafx.h for example) to gain access to these classes:

No Multi-Threading Multi-Threading (with MFC)
No argument
CDelegate0
CMTDelegate0
1 argument
CDelegate1< ARG >
CMTDelegate1< ARG >
2 arguments
CDelegate2< ARG1, ARG2 >
CMTDelegate2< ARG2, ARG2 >




Notes:


a) STL is used for multi-platform implementation.

b) C++ does not authorize variable length template argument lists and that’s
why I made different implementations for delegates with zero, one or two arguments.
If someone knows how to do in another way, just let me know.

c) C++ only defines scope resolution operator for base classes. We have to
specify the conversion in this particular case:


class CFoo
{

void Foo( int ) { }

void Init( CDelegate1& delegate )
{
// ERROR: CFoo:: operator does not exist here
delegate.Add( *this, CFoo::Foo );

// CORRECT: type cast is available
delegate.Add( *this, (void (CFoo::* )( int )) Foo );
}

};

To solve this little “read/write complication” we can define a typedef in our class declaration:

class CFoo
{

typedef MEMBER_FUNCTION_CALL_TYPEDEF1( CFoo, int ) OwnHandler;

};



So we could have:

delegate.Add( *this, (OwnHandler) Foo );



Actually the ‘base’ macros are:

MEMBER_FUNCTION_CALL_TYPEDEF0 for 0 arg member function
MEMBER_FUNCTION_CALL_TYPEDEF1 for 1 arg member function
MEMBER_FUNCTION_CALL_TYPEDEF2 for 2 args member function



You could also define a macro with MEMBER_FUNCTION_CALLx in your cpp file…



Conclusion:


I hope this code will help you in your programming. I’m working at EOLE SA and this method
helped me in my work because it’s lighter and less restrictive than interface definition/derivation
style of notifications (connection points).

Thanks for your attention. Please report any bugs!


Downloads


Download source and samples – 43 Kb


Download source only- 11 KB Kb

More by Author

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Developer Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Must Read