Question

Does anyone have any thoughts on passing full objects as variables as opposed to only pointers to the functions of the full object?

For example, I have a Dice object with two methods:

• RollDice(), randomizes the dice count
• GetCount(), retrieves the value

Now, I need to utilize the dice for more than just player moving, other objects need to be able to look at the Dice as well. Now, it seems wrong to me to pass the whole Dice object to these other objects, since then those objects would ‘technically’ be able to re-roll the Dice. Is it good or bad programming to pass only the GetCount function pointer to these other objects? Essentially saying “I’m not giving you the Dice, but I’ll show you how to read them.”.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

It seems that its an excellent oportunity to use the OBSERVER PATTERN (GoF);

public class Dice
{
    private List<IDiceObserver> observers;
    public void RegisterObserver(IDiceObserver observer)
    {
        this.observers.Add(observer);
    }

    private Int32 count;
    public Int32 Count
    {
        get
        {
            return this.count;
        }
        private set
        {
            this.count = value;
            foreach (IDiceObserver observer in this.observers)
                observer.DiceRolled(new DiceParameters(this.count));
        }
    }

    public void RollDice()
    {
        this.Count = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond).Next();
    }

    public Dice()
    {
        this.observers = new List<IDiceObserver>();
    }
}

Do you need any further explanation on pattern, or other classes implementations????