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NAME

       Command - base class for command objects

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Unidraw/Commands/command.h>

DESCRIPTION

       Command  is  an  abstract  base class for objects that define operations on components and
       other objects.  Commands are similar to messages in traditional object-oriented systems in
       that  components  can  receive  and  respond  to  them.   Commands can also be executed in
       isolation to perform arbitrary computation, and they  can  reverse  the  effects  of  such
       execution to support undo.

       Some  commands  (termed  purely  interpretive  commands) are interpreted by components but
       never executed in isolation, some are executed  but  never  interpreted  (non-interpretive
       commands),  and  some  are used in both ways.  Some commands may be directly accessible to
       the user through menus, while others are internal to  the  application.   In  general,  an
       undoable operation should be carried out by a command object.

PUBLIC OPERATIONS

       virtual void Execute()
       virtual void Unexecute()
       virtual boolean Reversible()
              Execute  performs  computation  to  carry  out  the command's semantics.  Unexecute
              performs computation to reverse  the  effects  of  a  previous  Execute,  based  on
              whatever  internal  state  the  command  maintains.   A  command is responsible for
              maintaining enough state to  reverse  one  Execute  operation;  repeated  Unexecute
              operations will not undo the effects of more than one Execute.

              By  default,  Execute  examines  the  current selection maintained in the command's
              editor (see below).  Execute will do nothing if the nothing  is  selected  and  the
              command's  clipboard (see below) is empty or non-existent.  Otherwise, if something
              is selected and the command's clipboard is non-existent,  then  Execute  creates  a
              clipboard  containing  the selected component subjects.  Finally, Execute will tell
              each component on the command's clipboard to interpret this.  Conversely, Unexecute
              tells  each  component  on  the clipboard (if any) to Uninterpret this this.  Thus,
              commands are purely interpretive by default.

              It may not be meaningful or appropriate, however,  for  some  commands  to  reverse
              their  effect.   For  example,  it  is probably not feasible to undo a command that
              generates an external representation.  The Reversible operation returns whether  or
              not   the   command  is  unexecutable  and  uninterpretable.   If  the  command  is
              irreversible, then it is ignored during the undo process.  By  default,  Reversible
              examines the command's clipboard; if the command doesn't have one, then the command
              is reversible if the user has at least one component view selected.  If the command
              has  a  non-empty clipboard, then it is deemed reversible.  Subclasses may redefine
              Reversible to base the command's reversibility on their own criteria.

       virtual void Store(Component*, Data* = nil)
       virtual Data* Recall(Component*)
              Since a command can affect more than one component, commands  must  let  components
              that  interpret  them store undo information somewhere.  The commands must also let
              components recall the information during uninterpretation.  Store lets a  component
              store a Data object in the command itself as part of the component's interpretation
              process.  The component can later retrieve the  data  with  the  Recall  operation.
              Store  and  Recall  require  a  Component  argument  to  distinguish  requests from
              potentially many components.

       virtual void Log()
              A convenience function for calling the equivalent function on  the  global  unidraw
              object.

       virtual void SetControlInfo(ControlInfo*)
       virtual void SetEditor(Editor*)
       virtual void SetClipboard(Clipboard*)

       virtual ControlInfo* GetControlInfo()
       virtual Editor* GetEditor()
       virtual Clipboard* GetClipboard()
              Operations  for  setting  and  getting  constructor-specified  state  stored in the
              command.  Commands use a ControlInfo object to  store  information  from  which  to
              build  a  user interface for executing the command.  Commands keep a pointer to the
              Editor instance they potentially affect.  Finally, a command uses  a  clipboard  to
              store the components it affects or affected.  A clipboard containing the components
              to be affected can be supplied in the  constructor,  but  more  often  the  command
              itself  creates  and  primes a clipboard based on the editor's selected components.
              The Set... operations do not delete the object being replaced.

       virtual void First(Iterator&)
       virtual void Last(Iterator&)
       virtual void Next(Iterator&)
       virtual void Prev(Iterator&)
       virtual boolean Done(Iterator)
              Operations for iterating over the command's children, if any.  These operations  do
              nothing  by  default.  Commands  that  compose other commands should redefine these
              operations to permit traversal of their children.  First  and  Last  initialize  an
              iterator  to  point to the beginning and end of the list of children, respectively.
              Next increments the iterator to point to the following child, while Prev decrements
              the  iterator  to  point  to  the preceding child.  Done returns whether or not the
              iterator points beyond the first or last child in the list.

       virtual Component* Copy()
              Return a copy of the command.  Subclasses should redefine this operation to  return
              an instance of their type.

       virtual void Read(istream&)
       virtual void Write(ostream&)
              Read  and  write  the command's contents to a stream to support catalog operations.
              Read and write typically call first the corresponding operations defined  by  their
              parent  class,  and  then they read or write their class-specific state.  Note that
              you must ensure that the objects are read in the same order they are written.

       virtual ClassId GetClassId()
       virtual boolean IsA(ClassId)
              GetClassId returns the unique class identifier for the Command subclass, while  IsA
              returns  whether  the instance is of a class or subclass corresponding to the given
              identifier.  IsA typically checks the given identifier against the  instance's  own
              (as  defined  by  its  GetClassId  operation)  and,  failing that, calls its parent
              classes' IsA operation.  All subclasses must redefine GetClassId and IsA to  ensure
              that their identifiers are unique and that instances are written and read properly.

       virtual ClassId GetSubstId(const char*& delim)
              A  Command  subclasses  can  redefine  GetSubstId  to  specify  a  command that can
              substitute for it.  This lets applications that do not define a particular  command
              subclass  still  read  in  a  substitute that is compatible with the subclass.  The
              substitute class should be one of the predefined commands in the  Unidraw  library.
              This guarantees that all applications can instantiate the substitute.

              GetSubstId  returns  the  class  identifier  for  the  substitute.  When an another
              Unidraw application's catalog reads this object, it can create an instance  of  the
              substitute (which it is guaranteed to define) instead of the original (which it may
              not define).

              The original should read and write  a  superset  of  the  substitute's  data.   The
              catalog  will  read to the end of the substitute's data and then advance the stream
              to the point following the sequence of characters specified by  delim,  saving  the
              extra  characters between the two points in the stream.  When the substitute object
              is saved subsequently, the original class identifier will be written along with the
              substitute's  data  plus  the  extra characters saved previously.  Thus information
              needn't be lost as a result  of  being  read  and  written  by  an  unsophisticated
              application.

PROTECTED OPERATIONS

       Command(ControlInfo*, Clipboard* = nil)
       Command(Editor* = nil, Clipboard* = nil)
              The  constructors are protected to prevent instatiation of the abstract base class.
              You can supply a ControlInfo or Editor and an optional  clipboard.   Only  commands
              that will be accessible to the user need a ControlInfo object.  All commands should
              be given an editor object before they are used.

       void InitCopy(Command*)
       ControlInfo* CopyControlInfo()
       Clipboard* CopyClipboard()
       Clipboard* DeepCopyClipboard()
              Convenience functions for use by subclasses  in  their  Copy  operation.   InitCopy
              gives this a copy of the given command's editor, clipboard, and interpretation data
              stored  by  the  components  that  interpreted  it,  if  any.  CopyControlInfo  and
              CopyClipboard  return  copies  of  the command's ControlInfo and Clipboard objects,
              respectively, if they are non-nil.  Both CopyControlInfo and  CopyClipboard  simply
              check  for  a  nil argument before calling the corresponding Copy operations on the
              objects.  DeepCopyClipboard checks for a nil clipboard before calling  DeepCopy  on
              the command's clipboard and returning the result.

       GraphicComp* GetGraphicComp()
              A  convenience function that returns the GraphicComp in the editor that the command
              affects.

SEE ALSO

       Catalog(3U),  Clipboard(3U),  ControlInfo(3U),  Data(3U),   Editor(3U),   GraphicComp(3U),
       Iterator(3U), Unidraw(3U), classes(3U), globals(3U), istream(3C++), ostream(3C++)