I’m trying to get the wheels turning on a large project in C#. My previous experience is in Delphi, where by default every form was created at applicaton startup and form references where held in (gasp) global variables. So I’m trying to adapt my thinking to a 100% object oriented environment, and my head is spinning just a little.
My app will have a large collection of classes Most of these classes will only really need one instance. So I was thinking: static classes. I’m not really sure why, but much of what I’ve read here says that if my class is going to hold a state, which I take to mean any property values at all, I should use a singleton structure instead. Okay. But there are people out there who for reasons that escape me, think that singletons are evil too.
None of these classes is in danger of being used anywhere except in this program. So they could certainly work fine as regular objects (vs singletons or static classes)
Then there’s the issue of interaction between objects. I’m tempted to create a Global class full of public static properties referencing the single instances of many of these classes. I’ve also considered just making them properties (static or instance, not sure which) of the MainForm. Then I’d have each of my classes be aware of the MainForm as Owner. Then the various objects could refer to each other as Owner.Object1, Owner.Object2, etc.
I fear I’m running out of electronic ink, or at least taxing the patience of anyone kind enough to have stuck with me this long. I hope I have clearly explained my state of utter confusion. I’m just looking for some advice on best practices in my situation. All input is welcome and appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
David Jennings
You could try it and see how it goes. Consider developing with NUnit at your side; if you do you’ll find that your code will stay flexible enough that making architectural changes won’t be too tough.
My preference is to avoid static classes and static data, but sometimes it just makes sense for the near term problem. On that, my advice is to consider what actually owns the various forms. Oftentimes it seems that people want to make the main form the “primary application thing,” but maybe there actually is a better owner for that form.
Anyway- beyond talking about and musing on what could be, I’d suggest just going ahead and trying some options out and see what they do. Don’t be afraid to change your software after you write it!