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+** Understanding transitional VCL lifecycle **
+
+---------- How it used to look ----------
+
+ All VCL classes were explicitly lifecycle managed; so you would
+do:
+ Dialog aDialog(...); // old - on stack allocation
+ aDialog.Execute(...);
+or:
+ Dialog *pDialog = new Dialog(...); // old - manual heap allocation
+ pDialog->Execute(...);
+ delete pDialog;
+or:
+ boost::shared_ptr<Dialog> xDialog(new pDialog()); // old
+ xDialog->Execute(...);
+ // depending who shared the ptr this would be freed sometime
+
+ In several cases this lead to rather unpleasant code, when
+various shared_ptr wrappers were used, the lifecycle was far less than
+obvious. Where controls were wrapped by other ref-counted classes -
+such as UNO interfaces, which were also used by native Window
+pointers, the lifecycle became extremely opaque. In addition VCL had
+significant issues with re-enterancy and event emission - adding
+various means such as DogTags to try to detect destruction of a window
+between calls:
+
+ ImplDelData aDogTag( this ); // 'orrible old code
+ Show( true, SHOW_NOACTIVATE );
+ if( !aDogTag.IsDead() ) // did 'this' go invalid yet ?
+ Update();
+
+ Unfortunately use of such protection is/was ad-hoc, and far
+from uniform, despite the prevelance of such potential problems.
+
+ When a lifecycle problem was hit, typically it would take the
+form of accessing memory that had been freed, and contained garbage due
+to lingering pointers to freed objects.
+
+
+---------- Where we are now: ----------
+
+ To fix this situation we now have a VclPtr - which is a smart
+ reference-counting pointer (include/vcl/vclptr.hxx) which is
+ designed to look and behave -very- much like a normal pointer
+ to reduce code-thrash. VclPtr is used to wrap all OutputDevice
+ derived classes thus:
+
+ VclPtr<Dialog> pDialog( new Dialog( ... ), SAL_NO_ACQUIRE );
+ ...
+ pDialog.disposeAndClear();
+
+ However - while the VclPtr reference count controls the
+ lifecycle of the Dialog object, it is necessary to be able to
+ break reference count cycles. These are extremely common in
+ widget hierarchies as each widget holds (smart) pointers to
+ its parents and also its children.
+
+ Thus - all previous 'delete' calls are replaced with 'dispose'
+ method calls:
+
+** What is dispose ?
+
+ Dispose is defined to be a method that releases all references
+ that an object holds - thus allowing their underlying
+ resources to be released. However - in this specific case it
+ also releases all backing graphical resources. In practical
+ terms, all destructor functionality has been moved into
+ 'dispose' methods, in order to provide a minimal initial
+ behavioral change.
+
+ As such a VclPtr can have three states:
+
+ VclPtr<PushButton> pButton;
+ ...
+ assert (pButton == nullptr || !pButton); // null
+ assert (pButton && !pButton->IsDisposed()); // alive
+ assert (pButton && pButton->IsDisposed()); // disposed
+
+** ScopedVclPtr - making disposes easier
+
+ While replacing existing code with new, it can be a bit
+ tiresome to have to manually add 'disposeAndClear()'
+ calls to VclPtr<> instances.
+
+ Luckily it is easy to avoid that with a ScopedVclPtr which
+ does this for you when it goes out of scope.
+
+** One extra gotcha - an initial reference-count of 1
+
+ In the normal world of love and sanity, eg. creating UNO
+ objects, the objects start with a ref-count of zero. Thus
+ the first reference is always taken after construction by
+ the surrounding smart pointer.
+
+ Unfortunately, the existing VCL code is somewhat tortured,
+ and does a lot of reference and de-reference action on the
+ class -during- construction. This forces us to construct with
+ a reference of 1 - and to hand that into the initial smart
+ pointer with a SAL_NO_ACQUIRE.
+
+ To make this easier, we have 'Instance' template wrappers
+ that make this apparently easier, by constructing the
+ pointer for you.
+
+** How does my familiar code change ?
+
+ Lets tweak the exemplary code above to fit the new model:
+
+- Dialog aDialog(... dialog params ... );
+- aDialog.Execute(...);
++ ScopedVclPtrInstance<Dialog> pDialog(... dialog params ... );
++ pDialog->Execute(...); // VclPtr behaves much like a pointer
+
+or:
+- Dialog *pDialog = new Dialog(... dialog params ...);
++ VclPtrInstance<Dialog> pDialog(... dialog params ...);
+ pDialog->Execute(...);
+- delete pDialog;
++ pDialog.disposeAndClear(); // done manually - replaces a delete
+or:
+- boost::shared_ptr<Dialog> xDialog(new Dialog(...));
++ ScopedVclPtrInstance<Dialog> xDialog(...);
+ xDialog->Execute(...);
++ // depending how shared_ptr was shared perhaps
++ // someone else gets a VclPtr to xDialog
+or:
+- VirtualDevice aDev;
++ ScopedVclPtrInstance<VirtualDevice> pDev;
+
+ Other things that are changed are these:
+
+- pButton = new PushButton(NULL);
++ pButton = VclPtr<PushButton>::Create(nullptr);
+...
+- vcl::Window *pWindow = new PushButton(NULL);
++ VclPtr<vcl::Window> pWindow;
++ pWindow.reset(VclPtr<PushButton>::Create(nullptr));
+
+** Why are these 'disposeOnce' calls in destructors ?
+
+ This is an interim measure while we are migrating, such that
+ it is possible to delete an object conventionally and ensure
+ that its dispose method gets called. In the 'end' we would
+ instead assert that a Window has been disposed in it's
+ destructor, and elide these calls.
+
+ As the object's vtable is altered as we go down the
+ destruction process, and we want to call the correct dispose
+ methods we need this disposeOnce(); call for the interim in
+ every destructor. This is enforced by a clang plugin.
+
+ The plus side of disposeOnce is that the mechanics behind it
+ ensure that a dispose() method is only called a single time,
+ simplifying their implementation.
+
+
+---------- Who owns & disposes what ? ----------
+
+** referencing / ownership inheritance / hierarchy.
+
+** VclBuilder
+ + and it's magic dispose method.
+
+
+---------- What remains to be done ? ----------
+
+ * Cleanup DogTags and LazyDelete.
+
+ * Expand the VclPtr pattern to many other less
+ than safe VCL types.
+
+ * create factory functions for VclPtr<> types and privatize
+ their constructors.
+
+ * Pass 'const VclPtr<> &' instead of pointers everywhere
+ + add 'explicit' keywords to VclPtr constructors to
+ accelerate compilation etc.
+
+ * Cleanup common existing methods such that they continue to
+ work post-dispose.
+
+ * Dispose functions should be audited to:
+ + not leave dangling pointsr
+ + shrink them - some work should incrementally
+ migrate back to destructors.
+
+ * VclBuilder
+ + ideally should keep a reference to pointers assigned
+ in 'get()' calls - to avoid needing explicit 'clear'
+ code in destructors.
+
+ * VclBuilder 'makeFoo' methods
+ + these should return VclPtr<> types and have their
+ signatures adjusted en-masse.
+ + currently we use a VclPtr<> constructor with
+ SAL_NO_ACQUIRE inside the builder.
+
+---------- FAQ / debugging hints ----------
+
+** Compile with dbgutil
+
+ This is by far the best way to turn on debugging and
+ assertions that help you find problems. In particular
+ there are a few that are really helpful:
+
+ vcl/source/window/window.cxx (Window::dispose)
+ "Window ( N4sfx27sidebar20SidebarDockingWindowE (Properties))
+ ^^^ class name window title ^^^
+ with live children destroyed: N4sfx27sidebar6TabBarE ()
+ N4sfx27sidebar4DeckE () 10FixedImage ()"
+
+ You can de-mangle these names if you can't read them thus:
+
+ $ c++filt -t N4sfx27sidebar20SidebarDockingWindowE
+ sfx2::sidebar::SidebarDockingWindow
+
+ In the above case - it is clear that the children have not been
+ disposed before their parents. As an aside, having a dispose chain
+ separate from destructors allows us to emit real type names for
+ parents here.
+
+ To fix this, we will need to get the dispose ordering right,
+ occasionally in the conversion we re-ordered destruction, or
+ omitted a disposeAndClear() in a ::dispose() method.
+
+ => If you see this, check the order of disposeAndClear() in
+ the sfx2::Sidebar::SidebarDockingWindow::dispose() method
+
+ => also worth git grepping for 'new sfx::sidebar::TabBar' to
+ see where those children were added.
+
+** Check what it used to do
+
+ While a ton of effort has been put into ensuring that the new
+ lifecycle code is the functional equivalent of the old code,
+ the code was created by humans. If you identify an area where
+ something asserts or crashes here are a few helpful heuristics:
+
+ * Read the git log -u -- path/to/file.cxx
+
+ => Is the order of destruction different ?
+
+ in the past many things were destructed (in reverse order of
+ declaration in the class) without explicit code. Some of these
+ may be important to do explicitly at the end of the destructor.
+
+ eg. having a 'Idle' or 'Timer' as a member, may now need an
+ explicit .Stop() and/or protection from running on a
+ disposed Window in its callback.
+
+ => Is it 'clear' not 'disposeAndClear' ?
+
+ sometimes we get this wrong. If the code previously used to
+ use 'delete pFoo;' it should now read pFoo->disposeAndClear();
+ Conversely if it didn't delete it, it should be 'clear()' it
+ is by far the best to leave disposing to the VclBuilder where
+ possible.
+
+ In simple cases, if we allocate the widget with VclPtrInstance
+ or VclPtr<Foo>::Create - then we need to disposeAndClear it too.
+