the ideal way of programming is to program to interfaces

[maskedMan]

Aaaaah, werry clever! That makes sense. I think this more clearly illustrates Abstract Factory for me than any of the literature I've read on the topic.

[acolyte]

was it the thingy you was looking for ?? did it helped you .

Discussion about design pattern theory in the Best Practice area in my Opinion would be a nice Sticky thread - dont you think .

So we could collect a library covering all patterns with flash/flex examples

[MichaelxxOA]

If you end up needing an interface just refactor your code. Simple code right now will make things easier when refactoring later.

[maskedMan]

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, Acolyte! Work is busy.

Hmmm... So, the "Factorys" itself is a sprite, but the IFactory objects it requests instances of are not. I suppose if the IFactory objects were in charge of changing some graphical elements in the Factorys object it could work. The problem is that while you're able to get IFactory objects just fine, you can't add them to the display list because they aren't considered by the machine to be display objects. That's what I'm really getting at... a way to instantiate any number of different subclasses of MovieClip/Sprite without referring to classnames, or even superclassname, but instead by using a common interface and then add them to the display list.

[creynders]

Just declare a getter for the instance as a MovieClip in the interface definition.

//interface 
function get mc() : MovieClip

//implementation
public function get mc() : MovieClip{
    return this as MovieClip
}

[maskedMan]

I did eventually try something like that, and it worked for a time. Problem was that it still didn't know its own base class if you used things like getChildAt(x) to retrieve it... so I took a little bit from Acolyte's example and created a recasting utility that basically accepts any object and returns it cast as its classname. Absolutely useless in most cases, but absolutely awesome if you are trying to stick an interface into a display list, or retrieve from said display list and immediately invoke a function or assign a variable.

I then took it a step further and added the recasting utility to a second utility that creates new instances of objects you pass to it. It has as function for making just default instances, a different function that accepts objects implementing an IClonable interface that allows the object that is to be coppied to be responsible for setting all of its relevant data in its clone before the clone is returned by the utility. It's a primitive, but in all the cases I need it effective way of duplicating display objects.

[acolyte]

Originally Posted by maskedMan

I did eventually try something like that, and it worked for a time. Problem was that it still didn't know its own base class if you used things like getChildAt(x) to retrieve it... so I took a little bit from Acolyte's example and created a recasting utility that basically accepts any object and returns it cast as its classname. Absolutely useless in most cases, but absolutely awesome if you are trying to stick an interface into a display list, or retrieve from said display list and immediately invoke a function or assign a variable.

I then took it a step further and added the recasting utility to a second utility that creates new instances of objects you pass to it. It has as function for making just default instances, a different function that accepts objects implementing an IClonable interface that allows the object that is to be coppied to be responsible for setting all of its relevant data in its clone before the clone is returned by the utility. It's a primitive, but in all the cases I need it effective way of duplicating display objects.

Wow that sound nice maskedman i like to organize my mediator like this what is most of the time a subclass of my view if you dont care i would love to see wht you found out about this topic
so it would be cool if you could upload a example maybee ?

What is a good rehearsal maybee for realy getting a crasp what
factory is doing infact i would recommend checking out steven sacks awesome gaiaflashframework what is one of a big factory .

http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/

If you follow the framework flow you will recognize that it is the factory what is abstracting away complexity what if you know what is all about with this strange word "consultancy" :| could be worth something if you are forced to work with nasty stinky sphagetticoders.

bw

m@

[NickZA]

Programming to interfaces forces you to think about your classes in terms of the services they provide... which in truth, is all that matters.

I find it prudent to structure objects first around what they provide (methods). Their internal structure is a function of these provisions.

In other words, don't build something in earnest until you know what it's for.

(P.S. This does not mean you cannot change your interfaces as you go, but by a certain point they will have solidified as you realise your requirements through coding... cf. the XP way: the "true" design emerges as you work.)