Re: Design problem with inheritance

From:
"mlimber" <mlimber@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
13 Jul 2006 07:48:27 -0700
Message-ID:
<1152802107.069639.113830@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
srinivasarao_moturu@yahoo.com wrote:

class ABC
{
    public :
    virtual void operation1();
    virtual void operation2();
    virtual int GetValue();
        virtual char GetValue();
        virtual void SetValue(int);
        virtual void SetValue(char);


Don't forget the virtual destructor.

}

class intABC : public ABC
{
   public :
        virtual void operation1();
        virtual void operation2();
        void SetValue(int);
        int GetValue();
   private:
        int val;
}

class charABC : public ABC
{
    public :
        virtual void operation1();
        virtual void operation2();
        void SetValue(char);
        char GetValue();
    private :
        char val;
}

class Controler
{
     public :
        //constructors and destructors
        void somefunc() //this function handles container member
     private :
        vector<ABC*> val;
}

client Controler class manipulates ABC derived classes polymorphically

I feel, In the above design surely it is not following Lispov
substitution principle.

here ABC is a fatty interface since intABC does not require char
version of get/set members
and charABC does not require int version of get/set members.

If I remove Get/Set members from ABC class and put int versions in
intABC and char versions in charABC then I have to use downcasting to
call specific versions.

so is there a good design to remove fatty interface from the ABC and at
the same time i should not use downcasting and another constraint is I
should use ABC polymorphically?


This is bad. You could use templates to make it better without doubling
the code to maintain.

 template<typename T>
 class ABC
 {
 public :
   typedef T Type;

   virtual void operation1() = 0;
   virtual void operation2() = 0;
   virtual Type GetValue() const = 0;
   virtual void SetValue(Type) = 0;
 };

 class intABC : public ABC<int>
 {
 public :
   virtual void operation1();
   virtual void operation2();
   virtual void SetValue(Type);
   virtual Type GetValue() const;
 private:
   Type val;
 };

Which could be used polymorphically like this:

 template<typename T>
 void Foo( const ABC<T>& abc )
 {
   abc.operation1();
   cout << abc.GetValue() << endl;
 }

Cheers! --M

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