Cfrtjryk

So I'm working on a game framework and one of the things I need are access to stateful "services" that can be accessed from all over. I was initially going to use the Singleton pattern but decided to try and come up with alternatives to avoid the short comings of that pattern.

So here is what I've got so far.

Main.cpp

#include "Engine.h"

#include "Logger.h"



int main(int argc, char* argv) {

    Engine engine;



    // old

    {

        auto logger = new Logger();



        engine.provide(logger);

        engine.getLoggerOld().log("old TEST");



        engine.provide(nullptr);

        delete logger;

    }

    engine.getLoggerOld().log("old TEST");

    // old





    // new

    {

        auto splogger = std::make_shared<Logger>();



        engine.provide(splogger);

        engine.getLoggerNew()->log("new TEST");

    }

    engine.getLoggerNew()->log("new TEST");

    // new



    return 0;

}

Engine.h

#pragma once



#include <memory>



#include "ILogger.h"

#include "NullLogger.h"



class Engine {

public:

    Engine() {

        //old 

        serviceLogger = &nullLogger;



        //new

        spLoggerService = std::make_shared<NullLogger>();

    }



///////// old

public:

    void provide(ILogger* service) {

        if (service) {

            serviceLogger = service;

        } else {

            serviceLogger = &nullLogger;

        }

    }



    ILogger& getLoggerOld() const {

        return *serviceLogger;

    }

private:

    ILogger* serviceLogger;

    NullLogger nullLogger;



///////// old



///////// new

public:

    void provide(std::shared_ptr<ILogger> loggerService) {

        wpLoggerService = loggerService;

    }



    std::shared_ptr<ILogger> getLoggerNew() {

        if (wpLoggerService.expired()) {

            wpLoggerService = spLoggerService;

        }

        return wpLoggerService.lock();

    }

private:

    std::shared_ptr<ILogger> spLoggerService;

    std::weak_ptr<ILogger> wpLoggerService;



///////// new

};

I'm a bit unsure on how I should implement the services, in the above example(s) "Engine"(The Service Locator) essentially is designed to never really "own" the services, and instead it only holds a reference to the services, it's then the externally determined if/how/when the services become invalid.

In the example sections labeled "old", these are basically how I saw this pattern implemented elsewhere. I don't like that its left up to how its used to determine if the pointers will be valid or not.

In the example sections labeled "new" I tried to implement the more modern smart pointers, I like the automatic cleanup of the expired references, etc. But I'm still not sure if I like the way the references are handled.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Does it make sense to give total ownership of the service to the Engine(locator) and allow its life cycle to manage cleanup?


2. Should I stay with the raw pointer "old" way I found in online examples?


3. Should I keep going with the "new" smart pointer way?(one thing I'm not a fan of here is needing the if (wpLoggerService.expired()) check as well as the .lock() when accessing a service.(maybe there is a better smart pointer way to avoide this?)

Also if it makes sense for the Engine(Locator) to manage the life-cycle of the services, I was thinking of maybe making the "provide" function similar to that of the std::vector's emplace_back where you would do something like: engine.provide<Logger>(/*ctor args*/) and the .provide<T>() function would instantiate the object internally to prevent any ownership/access to it externally. (This just seems like a more reasonable way to let the Engine control its life-cycle, or is this dumb?)

Disclaimer: New to C++, first time using smart pointers, please be gentle :3