I need to use an event system in C++. I have mainly four requirements :
- Speed
- Ease of use
- Type Safety
- Friendly Destruction
By "Friendly Destruction" I mean the event and the subscriber need to manage their disconnection when one of them get destroyed :
- An event shouldn't call a subscriber that has been destroyed.
- A subscriber shouldn't be able to unregister from an event that has been destroyed.
I wonder if anyone would have a nicer design than what I came up with :
User point of view :
struct ClickEventArg {};
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
class Button
{
public:
Event<ClickEventArg&> Clicked;
void SendClick(ClickEventArg& arg)
{
Clicked(this, arg);
}
};
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
class User
{
public:
void Register(Button* button)
{
button->Clicked.Subscribe(m_suscriber, this, &User::OnButtonClicked);
}
void OnButtonClicked(void* sender, ClickEventArg& arg)
{
std::cout << "button clicked";
}
private:
EventSubscriber m_suscriber;
};
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
void Test()
{
Button* button = new Button();
User* user = new User();
user->Register(button);
button->SendClick(ClickEventArg());
delete user;
button->SendClick(ClickEventArg());
}
Internal code :
class EventSubscriber;
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
class BaseEvent
{
public:
virtual void UnSubscribe(EventSubscriber& subscriber) = 0;
};
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
template <class TEventArgs>
class Event : public BaseEvent
{
public:
~Event()
{
UnSubscribeAll();
}
typedef fastdelegate::FastDelegate2<void*, TEventArgs> EventHandler;
inline void operator() (void* sender, TEventArgs args) const
{
for (SubscriberMap::const_iterator it = m_subscribers.begin(); it != m_subscribers.end(); ++it)
it->second(sender, args);
}
template <class TClass, class TEventArgs>
void Subscribe(EventSubscriber& subscriber, TClass* object, void (TClass::*methodAddress)(void* sender, TEventArgs e))
{
subscriber.Subscribe(this);
m_subscribers[&subscriber] = fastdelegate::MakeDelegate(object, methodAddress);
}
void UnSubscribe(EventSubscriber& subscriber)
{
subscriber.UnSubscribe(this);
m_subscribers.erase(&subscriber);
}
void UnSubscribeAll()
{
for (SubscriberMap::const_iterator it = m_subscribers.begin(); it != m_subscribers.end(); ++it)
it->first->UnSubscribe(this);
m_subscribers.clear();
}
private:
typedef std::map<EventSubscriber*, EventHandler> SubscriberMap;
SubscriberMap m_subscribers;
};
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------
class EventSubscriber
{
template <class TEventArgs> friend class Event;
public:
~EventSubscriber()
{
UnSubscribeAll();
}
private:
void Subscribe(BaseEvent* e)
{
m_subscriptions.insert(e);
}
void UnSubscribe(BaseEvent* e)
{
m_subscriptions.erase(e);
}
void UnSubscribeAll()
{
EventSet copy(m_subscriptions);
for (EventSet::iterator it = copy.begin(); it != copy.end(); ++it)
{
(*it)->UnSubscribe(*this);
}
}
typedef std::set<BaseEvent*> EventSet;
EventSet m_subscriptions;
};
You may notice I used the fast delegates from this article http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/FastDelegate.aspx.
The EventSubscriber class is needed for the "Friendly Destruction" aspect. (Otherwise I would have used a prettier design like in C#)
Any feedback is welcome.
Thanks.