This directory provides the controllers that act as an interface between the LyX kernel and the GUI-specific implementations of each dialog. It also provides abstract base classes from which GUI-specific implemetations of the ButtonController and each separate dialog should be derived (see ButtonControlBase.[Ch] and ViewBase.h respectively). The Controller connects the GUI-specific dialog to any appropriate signals and dispatches any changes in the data to the kernel. It has no knowledge of the actual instantiation of the GUI-dependent View and ButtonController, which should therefore be created elsewhere. Once created, the Controller will take care of their initialisation, management and, ultimately, destruction. This leaves the GUI-specific dialog (and its author!) to worry only about the data that it has been created to input/modify. This concept has been instatiated for the Citation dialog only at the moment. See xforms-new/FormCitation.[Ch] for an xforms-specific View of the dialog. How the code works. =================== I'll describe Inset-type dialogs (eg, the Citation dialog). Non-inset-type (eg the Document dialog) have similar flow, but the important controller functions are to be found in ControlDialogs.h, not ControlInset.h. Let's use the citation dialog as an example. The dialog is launched by : a) clicking on an existing inset, emitting the showCitation() (Dialogs.h) signal, connected to the showInset() slot (controllers/ControlInset.h) in theControlCitation c-tor. b) request a new inset (eg from the menubar), emitting a createCitation() signal (Dialogs.h) connected to the createInset() slot (controllers/ControlInset.h) in theControlCitation c-tor. The user presses the Ok, Apply, Cancel or Restore buttons. In xforms these are connected to the button controller (xforms/FormCitation.C: build) so: bc().setOK(dialog_->button_ok); bc().setApply(dialog_->button_apply); bc().setCancel(dialog_->button_cancel); bc().setRestore(dialog_->button_restore); The button controller alters the state of the buttons (active/inactive). xforms works by callbacks, so clicking on say the button_ok button causes a callback event to (see FormBase.C) extern "C" void C_FormBaseOKCB(FL_OBJECT * ob, long) { GetForm(ob)->OKButton(); } GetForm() extracts the actual instance of FormCitation that caused the event and calls OKButton() (see controllers/ViewBase.h) which in turn calls the controller's OKButton method. (The ViewBase method exists only because : /** These shortcuts allow (e.g. xform's) global callback functions access to the buttons without making the whole controller_ public. */ So, ultimately, pressing button_ok on the Citation dialog calls ControlBase::OKButton(). void ControlBase::OKButton() { apply(); hide(); bc().ok(); } apply() and hide() are pure virtual methods, instantiated in ControlInset.h because the Citation dialog is an inset dialog and all insets are functionally identical. template void ControlInset::apply() { if (lv_.buffer()->isReadonly()) return; view().apply(); if (inset_ && params() != getParams(*inset_)) applyParamsToInset(); else applyParamsNoInset(); } applyParamsToInset() and applyParamsNoInset(); are to be found in FormCommand.[Ch] because the citation inset is derived from InsetCommand and this subset of insets have identical internal structure and so the params can be applied in the same way.