CS247 Lecture 21

Last Time: D in SOLID, Visitor Pattern

This Time: CRTP, Polymorphic Cloning

I’m still not satisfied with this visitor pattern. Too much code!

There is going to be a lot of methods: If we have $n$ subclasses of $A$ and $m$ subclasses of $B:n\ast m$ different methods to write.

Annoying part: Boilerplate - write the following in each DerivedEnemy:

class DerivedEnemy: public Enemy{
	public:
		void beStruckBy(Weapon& w){
			w.strike(*this);
		}
};

• Must be done for every single DerivedEnemy
• Cannot put it in Enemy:

class Enemy{
	public:
		void beStruckBy(Weapon& w){
			w.strike(*this); // this is just an Enemy
		}
};

Doesn’t work - type of *this is wrong. It’s not telling us what the dynamic type is.

Solution to fixing the boilerplate code: CRTP Curiously Recurring Template Pattern

Template our superclass with a type parameter - inherit AND substitute the derived class type.

template<typename T> class Base{
	...
};
 
class Derived: Base<Derived> { // : publicly inheriting. At this point, we know Derived is a class. 
	... // We can use T in Base as if we have provided a forward declaration
};

How do we use this to fix the boilerplate code? ()

template<typename T> class Enemy{
	public:
		void beStruckBy(Weapon& w){
			w.strike(*static_cast<T*>(this));
		}
};
 
class Monster: public Enemy<Monster> {...};
class Turtle: public Enemy<Turtuel> {...};

• created a template base class Enemy that takes the derived class type as a template parameter.
• then derive enemy classes from the Enemy template and provide the derived class type as template argument.

This sort of works:

Weapon* w = ... ;
Turtle t{...};
t.beStruckBy(*w); // calls Enemy<Turtle>::beStruckBy

• when we call beStruckBy on an enemy instance, the CRTP pattern ensures that the correct w.strike method is called on the dynamic type of the enemy.

Cast *this from type Enemy<Turtle>* to Turtle* allows us to override into Rock::Strike(Turtle&) (or stick).

Explanation

Key here is that by using CRTP, the this pointer static type is Enemy<Turtle>* but its dynamic type is Turtle*. The cast static_cast<T*>(this) effectively changes the static type to Turtle*, which allows the correct w.strike method to be called based on the dynamic type.

Issue: Now, we have different superclasses for each Enemy:

Because Enemy<Turtle> and Enemy<Monster> are different classes, we can no longer use Enemys polymorphically.

• No vector<Enemy*> allowed!

Solution: Add another layer of inheritance. This solution aims to provide a common interface for all concrete enemy types while maintaining the desired behaviour of the Visitor Pattern.

class Enemy{
	public:
		virtual void beStruckBy(Weapon& w) = 0; // abstract class with pure virtual function defined
		virtual ~Enemy() {} 
};
 
template<typename T> class EnemyBeStruck: public Enemy { // abstract class
	public:
		void beStruckBy(Weapon& w) override {
			w.strike(*static_cast<T*>(this)); // converts this to a turtle or monster
		}
		virtual ~EnemyBeStruck() = 0; // need to implement that
};
 
template<typename T> EnemyBeStruck<T>::~EnemyBeStruck<T>(){}
 
class Turtle: public EnemyBeStruck<Turtle> {...}
class Monster: public EnemyBeStruck<Monster> {...}

• The Enemy class defines a pure virtual function beStruckBy, creating a common interface for all enemies.
• The EnemyBeStruck<T> class inherits publicly from Enemy and implements the virtual beStruckBy function by using CRTP. It also provides a virtual destructor, which should be defined outside the class as you’ve shown.
• The concrete enemy classes (Turtle and Monster) specialize the EnemyBeStruck template class by providing the derived type (Turtle or Monster) as the template argument. This allows them to inherit the behaviour of EnemyBeStruck and provide their own specific implementations.

Now we have a public interface by which all our concrete enemies follow: they can all beStruckBy weapons.

We use this virtual method in Enemy to resolve beStruckBy to either EnemyBeStruck<Turtle> or EnemyBeStruck<Monster> (when we have a pointer to Enemy)

Then just static_cast to T* - and we’re good.

Weapon* w = ...;
Enemy* e = new Turtle{...} / new Monster{...};
e->beStruckBy(*w);

Another problem CRTP can solve: Polymorphic cloning

Recall abstract book hierarchy:

Say I have:

AbstractBook* b = ...;

I want a deep copy of whatever b points to. I cannot just do this:

AbstractBook* b2 = new AbstractBook{*b}

This attempts to create an AbstractBook by invoking its constructor. Wrong for 2 reasons:

1. AbstractBook is abstract, we cannot instantiate those objects
2. Ignoring what we’re actually pointing at, we actually want to invoke a constructor that depends on the dynamic type of b.

We can provide a virtual clone method for the purpose of solving this.

class AbstractBook{
	public:
		virtual AbstractBook* clone() = 0;
		virtual ~AbstractBook() {}
};
 
class Text: public AbstractBook{
	public:
		Text* clone() override {
			return new Text{title, author, length, topic};
		}
};
// Similar with a Comic/Normal Book
 
AbstractBook* b = ...;
AbstractBook* b2 = b->clone();

Instead use the copy constructor in each of our clone methods to simplify the implementation.

class Text: public AbstractBook {
	public:
		Text* clone() override {
			return new Text{*this};	// creates a new Text based on the constant lvalue of this
		}
};
// Exact same code in Normal Book and Comic just the type of this and the type of constructor which is changing

Once again, we can use CRTP.

class AbstractBook {
	public:
		virtual AbstractBook* clone() = 0;
		virtual ~AbstractBook() {}
};
 
template<typename T> class BookClonable: public AbstractBook {
	public:
		T* clone() override {
			return new T{*static_cast<T*>(this)};
		}
		virtual ~BookClonable() = 0; // implement this outside of class, makes this class abstract
};
 
template<typename T> BookClonable<T>::~BookClonable<T>() {}
 
class Text: public BookClonable<Text> {...}
class Comic: public BookClonable<Comic> {...}
 
AbstractBook* b = new Text{...} / new Comic{...};
AbstractBook* b2 = b->clone();

b->clone() is virtual, so if b points at a Comic, we call BookClonable<Comic>::clone - static_cast this into a Comic* and invoke the Comic copy constructor with the Comic&. Provided for all subclasses - reduces boilerplate code.

---

Command Pattern

About using objects to encapsulate behaviour of some “action” within a system.

Example: Consider writing an IDE. Using MVC - we might have Model/Control relationship where Controller calls Model methods, like :

Model::insert Text
Model::copy 
Model::paste
Model::ChangeSyntaxHighlighting

This is a decent decision - but it doesn’t allow for some features we might desire:

• Macros - replaying sequences of instructions
• Undo / Redo

Command Pattern: Instead of manipulating the model directly - we pass Commands to an Invoker.

Command object has whatever information it needs to perform its given action - maybe the Model, maybe sub objects within the model

1. Controller would create command objects, supply with info they need
2. Sends abstract commands to the Invoker for processing
3. Invoker calls each action method to execute the command.

Invoker can hold additional information!

Invoker can maintain additional state - stack of Commands for undo / redo, or mapping of a macro keyword to a list of commands.

Next: CS247 Lecture 22