Delegates
Delegates
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.
A delegate is a helper object used by another object. The delegator may send the delegate certain messages, and provide a default implementation when there is not delegate or the delegate does not respond to a message. This pattern is heavily used in Cocoa framework on Mac OS X
Objects responsibilities:
Delegator:
- Keep an optional delegate instance.
- Implement "operation" method, returning the delegate "thing" if the delegate respond to "thing", or the string "default implementation".
Delegate:
- Implement "thing" and return the string "delegate implementaion"
Show how objets are created and used. First, without a delegate, then with a delegate.
Objective-C
@interface Delegator : NSObject { id delegate; } - (id)delegate; - (void)setDelegate:(id)obj; - (NSString *)operation; @end @implementation Delegator - (id)delegate; { return delegate; } - (void)setDelegate:(id)obj; { delegate = obj; // Weak reference } - (NSString *)operation; { if ([delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(thing)]) return [delegate thing]; return @"default implementation"; } @end // Any object may implement these @interface NSObject (DelegatorDelegating) - (NSString *)thing; @end @interface Delegate : NSObject // Don't need to declare -thing because any NSObject has this method @end @implementation Delegate - (NSString *)thing; { return @"delegate implementation"; } @end // Example usage // Memory management ignored for simplification int main() { // Without a delegate Delegator *a = [[Delegator alloc] init]; assert([[a operation] isEqualToString:@"default implementation"]); // With a delegate Delegate *d = [[Delegate alloc] init]; [a setDelegate:d]; assert([isEqualToString:@"delegate implementation"]); return 0; }
Python
class Delegator: def __init__(self): self.delegate = None def operation(self): if hasattr(self.delegate, 'thing'): return self.delegate.thing() return 'default implementation' class Delegate: def thing(self): return 'delegate implementation' if __name__ == '__main__': # No delegate a = Delegator() assert a.operation() == 'default implementation' # With delegate a.delegate = Delegate() assert a.operation() == 'delegate implementation'