RE: Tables, Wrappers and MLs, oh my! -- JAVA400-L

holy smokes!  

At first, OO programming sounded like more "theory" than reality.
Up until now it seemed like a "strong possibility".
Now it seems like "endless theory". :)

When I see all this, I have to ask, is it really worth it?  Why not do some
OO and some procedural programming?

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?  (I know Joe P's out for the
week).

- This post is purely rhetorical unless someone wishes to answer the above
questions.    This in no way is inteded to be a negative post, I'm just
thinking out loud.  

All I wanted was to create some code that would let me choose XML or HTML
and it's turning out to be a little more work that led on to be.  :)  but,
we're learning.

Brad

> Ah. Add another level of encapsulation.
> This is the solution to all design questions. You simply 
> encapsulate more,
> and
> if you find its difficult, you mix your encapsulation around a bit.
> (Tongue in cheek ;-)
> 
> Create 'MLAttribute' Interface and XML/HTML implementations of it.
> The XXXFormatter and the XXXMLAttribute work together to
> get the final goel done.
> 
> Create abstraction so that Table, Row, Field use the generic Formatter
> and MLAttribute objects.
> 
> The user code does set up the tiny piece of code that cares 
> about WHICH
> type of formatting is being done, all the rest is generic.
> 
> 
> Table myTable = new Table();
> numRows = myTable.getNumRows();
> numFields = myTable.getNumFields();
> 
> GenericFormatter    fmt = null;
> MLAttributes        tblAttr = null;
> MLAttributes        rowAttr[] = new MLAttributes[numRows];
> MLAttributes        fieldAttr[] = new MLAttributes[numFields];
> 
> if (isXML) {
>    // First get very specific into the right type
>    // of formatter.
>    XMLTableFormatter  xmlFmt         = new XMLTableFormatter;
>    XMLMLAttributes    xmlTblAttr     = new XMLMLAttributes();
>    XMLMLAttributes    xmlRowAttr[]   = new XMLMLAttributes[numRows];
>    XMLMLAttributes    xmlFieldAttr[] = new XMLMLAttributes[numFields];
> 
>    xmlTblAttr = new XMLMLAttributes();
>    xmlTblAttr.setWrapper("Table");
> 
>    for (int rowN=0; i<numRows; ++i) {
>      // In reality, use 1 of these if the attributes for each
>      // row are the same.
>      xmlRowAttr[rowN] = new XMLMLAttributes();
>      xmlRowAttr[rowN].setWrapper("Data");
>    }
>    for (int fieldN=0; i<numFields; ++i) {
>      xmlFieldAttr[fieldN] = new XMLMLAttributes()
>      // Perhaps table is defined to use some appropriately
>      // generic setXxxx method on the attributes object
>      // for each time its called for a field.
>      // i.e. the table would do MLAttribute.setName()
>      // and an XMLMLAttribute might use that for the
>      // setWrapper() method, while the HTMLMLAttribute()
>      // might simply ignore it.
>    }
>    // Now go back to generic for the rest of the code
>    fmt = xmlFmt;
>    tblAttr = xmlTblAttr;
>    // Yes, this array assigment is compatible due to
>    // the relationship between the XMLMLAttributes and
>    // the MLAttributes objects.
>    rowAttr = xmlRowAttr;
>    fieldAttr = xmlFieldAttr;
> }
> else if (isHTML) {
>    // First get very specific into the right type
>    // of formatter.
>    HTMLTableFormatter  htmlFmt         = new HTMLTableFormatter;
>    HTMLMLAttributes    htmlTblAttr     = new HTMLMLAttributes();
>    HTMLMLAttributes    htmlRowAttr[]   = new 
> HTMLMLAttributes[numRows];
>    HTMLMLAttributes    htmlFieldAttr[] = new 
> HTMLMLAttributes[numFields];
> 
>    htmlTblAttr = new HTMLMLAttributes();
>    htmlTblAttr.setHTMLOpenTag("<td>");
>    htmlTblAttr.setHTMLCloseTag("</td>");
> 
>    for (int rowN=0; i<numRows; ++i) {
>      // In reality, use 1 of these if the attributes for each
>      // row are the same.
>      htmlRowAttr[rowN] = new HTMLMLAttributes();
>      htmlRowAttr[rowN].setHtmlOpenTag("<tr>");
>      htmlRowAttr[rowN].setHtmlCloseTag("</tr>");
>    }
>    for (int fieldN=0; i<numFields; ++i) {
>      htmlFieldAttr[fieldN] = new HTMLMLAttributes()
>      // Perhaps table is defined to use some appropriately
>      // generic setXxxx method on the attributes object
>      // for each time its called for a field.
>      // i.e. the table would do MLAttribute.setName()
>      // and an XMLMLAttribute might use that for the
>      // setWrapper() method, while the HTMLMLAttribute()
>      // might simply ignore it.
>      htmlFieldAttr[fieldN].setClass(myTable.getFieldClass(fieldN));
>    }
>    // Now go back to generic for the rest of the code
>    fmt = htmlFmt;
>    tblAttr = htmlTblAttr;
>    // Yes, this array assigment is compatible due to
>    // the relationship between the HTMLMLAttributes and
>    // the MLAttributes objects.
>    rowAttr = htmlRowAttr;
>    fieldAttr = htmlFieldAttr;
> }
> 
> 
> myTable.setFormatter(new XMLTableFormatter());
> // In reality, might have a single set method
> // if we desired to use one set of attributes
> // for all rows.
> for (int rowN=0; i<numRows; ++i) {
>   myTable.setRowAttributes(rowN, rowAttr[rowN]);
> }
> for (int fieldN=0; i<numFields; ++i) {
>   myTable.setFieldAttributes(fieldN, fieldAttr[fieldN])
> }
> myTable.toML();
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "The stuff we call "software" is not like anything that human society
>   is used to thinking about. Software is something like a machine, and
>   something like mathematics, and something like language, and
>   something like thought, and art, and information...
>   but software is not in fact any of those other things."
> Bruce Sterling - The Hacker Crackdown
> 
> Fred A. Kulack  -  AS/400e  Java and Java DB2 access, Jdbc, 
> JTA, etc...
> IBM in Rochester, MN  (Phone: 507.253.5982   T/L 553-5982)
> mailto:kulack@us.ibm.com   Personal: mailto:kulack@bresnanlink.net
> AOL Instant Messenger: Home:FKulack  Work:FKulackWrk
> 
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