Breaking Dependencies on Legacy Code

[Michael Oswald]

Hello,

I have a rather big application with many processes and have to add some
features. I want to put some classes of it into a test harness with
cppunit and need to break some dependencies on a vendor GUI library.
Maybe someone has some thoughts on this.

Suppose there is a GUI class from the vendor library:

// Sheet.h:
class Sheet /*: public Matrix*/
{
public:
Sheet();
virtual ~Sheet();

virtual void draw();
void setSomething();
virtual void someCallback();
};

which is part of a greater hierarchy. It has virtual methods,
non-virtual methods and some virtual callback methods.

The application then inherits from this class something like that:


// EntrySheet.h
#include <iostream>
#include "Sheet.h"


class EntrySheet : public Sheet
{
public:
EntrySheet() : Sheet()
{}

virtual ~EntrySheet();

virtual void someMoreMemberFunc();

virtual void someCallback()
{
std::cout << "Callback called" << std::endl;
}
};

//EntrySheet.cpp:
#include "EntrySheet.h"

void EntrySheet::someMoreMemberFunc()
{
// do something
}


So nothing exciting here. For putting this class in a test harness I
want to get rid of the GUI class and replace it with a dummy class which
is more suitable for testing.

My first idea was to change EntrySheet to something like this:

//EntrySheet.h:
#include "Sheet.h"

template<typename T>
class EntrySheet : public T
{
public:
typedef T Inherited;

EntrySheet() : Sheet()
{}

virtual ~EntrySheet();

virtual void someMoreMemberFunc();

virtual void someCallback();
};
#include "EntrySheet.cpp"


//EntrySheet.cpp:

template<typename T>
void EntrySheet<t>::someMoreMemberFunc()
{
//do something
}


Then the class can be used in the production code with:

#include "Sheet.h"
#include "EntrySheet.h"

typedef EntrySheet<Sheet> IEntrySheet;

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
IEntrySheet sheet;

sheet.setSomething();
sheet.someMoreMemberFunc();
sheet.draw();

return 0;
}


For the test harness only the typdef needs to be changed

#include "DummySheet.h"
#include "EntrySheet.h"

typedef EntrySheet<DummySheet> IEntrySheet;

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
IEntrySheet sheet;

// perform tests

return 0;
}


This method works and the advantages are, that it is relatively easy to
implement and in DummySheet there need only the member functions to be
implemented, which are really referenced (Sheet is rather big).

The big disadvantage is, that EntrySheet is rather big too and in the
template version it has to be included everytime it is used which
increases compile time, especially if this dependency breaking method is
used for more classes.

In "Working effectively with legacy code" Michael Feathers suggests to
use wrappers for vendor libraries, but this seems not feasible because I
need the inheritance to get the someCallback() call from somewhere in
the vendor library hierarchy.

Any thoughts on other methods which allow an easy switching between
dummy and real class for testing and that don't increase the compile time?


lg,
Michael

 

[Noah Roberts]

The big disadvantage is, that EntrySheet is rather big too and in the
template version it has to be included everytime it is used which
increases compile time, especially if this dependency breaking method is
used for more classes.

That's a smell of its own that needs dealing with. Split the class up
first and put its individual components under harness. You might then
not need put the sheet in at all.

 

[Michael Oswald]

That's a smell of its own that needs dealing with. Split the class up
first and put its individual components under harness. You might then
not need put the sheet in at all.

Good point. I'll have a look what's possible.

lg,
Michael