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Asked: 2026-05-11T01:40:48+00:00

Whenever I try to write graphical programs (whether a game or really any GUI

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Whenever I try to write graphical programs (whether a game or really any GUI app) I always wind up with one or two god classes with way too many methods (and long methods, too), and each class having far too many responsibilities. I have graphics being done at the same time as calculations and logic, and I feel like this is a really bad way to go about organizing my code. I want to get better at organizing my code and abstracting out responsibilities to different classes. Here’s an example of where I’d like to start – I want to write a Minesweeper clone, just sort of as practice and to try to improve my software engineering skills. How would I go about making this nice and object-oriented? For the sake of discussion, let’s just say I’m using Java (because I probably will, either that or C#). Here’s some things I would think about:

  • should each tile inherit from JButton or JComponent and handle drawing itself?
  • or should the tiles just be stored as some non-graphical MinesweeperTile object and some other class handles drawing them?
  • is the 8-segment display countdown timer (pre-Vista, at least) a separate class that handles drawing itself?
  • when the user clicks, do the tiles have mouse event listeners or does some other collision detection method loop through the tiles and check each one to see if it’s been hit?

I realize that there’s not just one way to write a GUI application, but what are some pretty basic things I can start doing to make my code more organized, manageable, object-oriented, and just over all write better programs?

edit: I guess I should add that I’m familiar with MVC, and I was originally going to incorporate that into my question, but I guess I didn’t want to shoehorn myself into MVC if that’s not necessarily what I need. I did searched for topics on MVC with GUI apps but didn’t really find anything that answers my specific question.

edit2: Thanks to everyone who answered. I wish I could accept more than one answer..

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  1. Here is a simple (but effective) OO design to get you started:

    First create a Game object that is pure Java/C# code. With no UI or anything else platform specific. The Game object handles a Board object and a Player object. The Board object manages a number of Tile objects (where the mines are). The Player object keeps track of ‘Number of turns’, ‘Score’ etc. You will also need a Timer object to keep track of the game time.

    Then create a separate UI object that doesn’t know anything about the Game object. It is completely stand alone and completely platform dependent. It has its own UIBoard, UITile, UITimer etc. and can be told how to change its states. The UI object is responsible for the User Interface (output to the screen/sound and input from the user).

    And finally, add the top level Application object that reads input from the UI object, tells the Game what to do based on the input, is notified by the Game about state changes and then turns around and tells the UI how to update itself.

    This is (by the way) an adaption of the MVP (Model, View, Presenter) pattern. And (oh by the way) the MVP pattern is really just a specialization of the Mediator pattern. And (another oh by the way) the MVP pattern is basically the MVC (Model, View, Control) pattern where the View does NOT have access to the model. Which is a big improvement IMHO.

    Have fun!

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