Currently, my level of understanding is below all the coding examples on the web about the Observer Pattern. I understand it simply as being almost a subscription that updates all other events when a change is made that the delegate registers. However, I’m very unstable in my true comprehension of the benefits and uses. I’ve done some googling, but most are above my level of understanding.
I’m trying to implement this pattern with my current homework assignment, and to truly make sense on my project need a better understanding of the pattern itself and perhaps an example to see what its use. I don’t want to force this pattern into something just to submit, I need to understand the purpose and develop my methods accordingly so that it actually serves a good purpose. My text doesn’t really go into it, just mentions it in one sentence. MSDN was hard for me to understand, as I’m a beginner on this, and it seems more of an advanced topic.
How would you describe this Observer pattern and its uses in C# to a beginner? For an example, please keep code very simple so I can understand the purpose more than complex code snippets. I’m trying to use it effectively with some simple textbox string manipulations and using delegates for my assignment, so a pointer would help!
The best example I can come up with is that of a mailing list (as an example).
You, the observer, subscribe to a mailing list and you observe the list. When you are no longer interested in the list, you unsubscribe.
This concept is the observer pattern. Two or more classes are involved. One or more class, subscribes to a publisher class (there are different names) and then the first class (and every subscribing class) will get notified when ever the publisher desires.
This is how I explained it to my wife, who often listens to my rantings about programming and design theory. It made sense to her. I realize this might be too simple for you but is a good start…
Regards,
Frank