From: Andreas Huber (ahd6974-spamgroupstrap_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-02-27 19:41:51
Jeff Garland wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 11:40:52 +0000 (UTC), Darryl Green wrote
>
>> When the obvious increase in code complexity is smaller than the
>> obvious decrease in code complexity?
>>
>> I really need to ask - an obvious increase in complexity over what?
>> I have seen some truly complex code arise from *not* using an fsm
>> framework in some form or another.
>
> The context of my comment was with respect to the stop watch example.
> I think we are all in agreement that the stop watch is too simple for
> the benefits of increased complexity required to use fsm. And I'm
> thinking we might want to say something about that in the docs -- I'm
> afraid alot of developers would be scared away looking at the code.
> A bunch of us understand that once the state machine gets a little
> more complicated the hand solutions tend to get ugly and buggy, but
>
>
> In particular I was thinking of some of the 'scary' code as:
>
> double ElapsedTime() const
> {
> return state_cast< const IElapsedTime & >().ElapsedTime();
> }
> //class running
> virtual double ElapsedTime() const
> {
> return context< Active >().ElapsedTime() +
> std::difftime( std::time( 0 ), startTime_ );
> }
>
> One part of the increased code complexity is just getting to
> understand the idioms to access other states. The other part is that
> that originally threw
> me was the locations of the time calculation functions. It wasn't
> obvious to me why I would code the addition to elapsed time was in
> the destructor of the Running state versus somehow making it part of
> the running->stopped
> transition. In this case I was thinking about how I would explain
> the rules
> of thumb to a 'junior' developer that actaully had to write the
> behavioral code.
> BTW, I think part of my trouble might have been that the code
> context< Active
>> is introduced before it is explained in the tutorial. So I think I
>> got
> distracted trying to understand what that code meant...
Ok, noted. I'll see how I can explain this better.
Regards,
-- Andreas Huber When replying by private email, please remove the words spam and trap from the address shown in the header.