2 * \file frontend/Application.h
3 * This file is part of LyX, the document processor.
4 * Licence details can be found in the file COPYING.
6 * \author Abdelrazak Younes
8 * Full author contact details are available in file CREDITS.
14 #include "ColorCode.h"
16 #include "support/strfwd.h"
18 #include <boost/function.hpp>
38 /// The main application class
40 There should be only one instance of this class. No Qt object
41 initialisation should be done before the instanciation of this class.
43 Model/View/Controller separation at frontend level in LyX-qt4:
45 BufferList (N Buffers)
52 Application (this is the frontend really, should probably be renamed).
54 LyXView-1 (M1 WorkAreas, M1 <= N)
60 | BufferView <-----------> Buffer-c
64 LyXView-2 (M2 WorkAreas, M2 <= N, M2 independent of M1)
69 1) The Model: \c Buffer
71 The Buffer is the in-memory representation of a LyX file format. The
72 Buffer does not (should not) have any information on what part of it
73 is represented on screen. There is one unique Buffer per opened LyX
74 file. A Buffer may or may not be represented on screen; typically, a
75 child document does not have an associated BufferView unless the user
76 choose to visualize it.
79 2) The Controller: \c BufferView / \c Painter \c Cursor
81 The BufferView is a tool used by the view (\sa WorkArea) that
82 translates a part of the Buffer contents into drawing routines. The
83 BufferView asks each inset of the Buffer to draw itself onto the
84 screen using the Painter. There can be only one Buffer displayed in
85 a BufferView and it is set on construction. Ideally, a BufferView
86 should not be able to change the contents of its associated Buffer.
87 A BufferView is instanciated and destroyed by a \c WorkArea; it is
88 automatically destroyed by the parent WorkArea when its Buffer is
91 \todo Move all Buffer changing LFUN to LyXFunc or Cursor.
92 \todo BufferView::buffer() should only offer const access.
94 The \c Painter is just a virtual interface to formalize each kind of
95 drawing routines (text, line, rectangle, etc).
97 The \c BufferView also contains a Cursor which may or may not be
98 visible on screen. The cursor is really just a bookmark to remember
99 where the next Buffer insertion/deletion is going to take place.
102 3) The View: \c WorkArea (and it's qt4 specialisation GuiWorkArea)
104 This contains the real screen area where the drawing is done by the
105 Painter. One WorkArea holds one unique \c BufferView. While it could
106 be possible that multiple WorkArea share one BufferView, this is not
107 something desirable because a BufferView is dependent of the WorkArea
109 The WorkArea also provide a scrollbar which position is translated
110 into scrolling command to the inner \c BufferView.
112 The WorkArea use the BufferView to translate each keyboard or mouse
113 events into terms that the Buffer can understand:
119 4) The Window: \c LyXView (and its qt4 specialisation \c GuiView)
121 This is a full window containing a menubar, toolbars and a central
122 widget. A LyXView is in charge of creating and closing a View for a
124 In the qt4 specialisation, \c GuiView, the central widget is a tab
125 widget. Each tab is reverved to the visualisation of one Buffer and
126 contains one WorkArea. In the qt4 frontend, one LyXView thus contains
127 multiple WorkAreas but this number can limited to one for another
128 frontend. The idea is that the kernel should not know how a Buffer
129 is displayed on screen; it's the frontend business.
130 In the future, we may also have multiple Workareas showing
131 simultaneously in the same GuiView (ex: with split window).
133 \todo Implement split-window
135 In any case, there would be only one WorkArea that gets the focus
138 With our current implementation using a QTabWidget, each Tab own its
139 own \c WorkArea. Clicking on a tab switch a WorkArea and not really
140 a Buffer. LFUN_BUFFER_SWITCH will tell the frontend to search the
141 WorkArea associated to this Buffer. The WorkArea is automatically
142 created if not already present.
144 A WorkArea is connected to the Buffer::closing signal and is thus
145 automatically destroyed when its Buffer is closed.
154 virtual ~Application() {}
157 virtual FuncStatus getStatus(FuncRequest const & cmd) = 0;
158 /// dispatch command.
159 virtual void dispatch(FuncRequest const & cmd) = 0;
162 virtual void resetGui() = 0;
165 virtual void hideDialogs(std::string const & name, Inset * inset) const = 0;
167 virtual Buffer const * updateInset(Inset const * inset) const = 0;
169 /// Start the main event loop.
170 /// The batch command is programmed to be execute once
171 /// the event loop is started.
172 virtual int exec() = 0;
174 /// Quit running LyX.
176 * This may either quit directly or record the exit status
177 * and only stop the event loop.
179 virtual void exit(int status) = 0;
182 * Given col, fills r, g, b in the range 0-255.
183 * The function returns true if successful.
184 * It returns false on failure and sets r, g, b to 0.
186 virtual bool getRgbColor(ColorCode col, RGBColor & rgbcol) = 0;
188 /** Eg, passing Color_black returns "000000",
189 * passing Color_white returns "ffffff".
191 virtual std::string const hexName(ColorCode col) = 0;
194 * update an altered GUI color
196 virtual void updateColor(ColorCode col) = 0;
199 * add a callback for socket read notification
200 * @param fd socket descriptor (file/socket/etc)
202 typedef boost::function<void()> SocketCallback;
203 virtual void registerSocketCallback(int fd, SocketCallback func) = 0;
206 * remove a I/O read callback
207 * @param fd socket descriptor (file/socket/etc)
209 virtual void unregisterSocketCallback(int fd) = 0;
212 } // namespace frontend
214 frontend::Application * theApp();
215 frontend::Application * createApplication(int & argc, char * argv[]);
220 #endif // APPLICATION_H