preliminary documentation of wxEventLoop
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / evtloop.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: wx/evtloop.h
3 // Purpose: wxEventLoop and related classes
4 // Author: Vadim Zeitlin
5 // Copyright: (C) 2008 Vadim Zeitlin
6 // RCS-ID: $Id$
7 // Licence: wxWindows license
8 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
9
10 /**
11 @class wxEventLoopBase
12
13 Base class for all event loop implementations.
14
15 An object of this class is created by wxAppTraits::CreateEventLoop() and
16 used by wxApp to run the main application event loop.
17
18 @library{wxbase}
19 @category{appmanagement}
20
21 @see wxApp
22 */
23 class wxEventLoopBase
24 {
25 public:
26 /**
27 Return the currently active (running) event loop.
28
29 May return @NULL if there is no active event loop (e.g. during
30 application startup or shutdown).
31 */
32 static wxEventLoopBase *GetActive();
33
34 /**
35 Set currently active (running) event loop.
36
37 Called by wxEventLoopActivator, use an instance of this class instead
38 of calling this method directly to ensure that the previously active
39 event loop is restored.
40 */
41 static void SetActive(wxEventLoopBase* loop);
42
43
44 /**
45 Use this to check whether the event loop was successfully created
46 before using it
47 */
48 virtual bool IsOk() const;
49
50 /**
51 Start the event loop, return the exit code when it is finished.
52
53 Logically, this method calls Dispatch() in a loop until it returns
54 @false and also takes care of generating idle events during each loop
55 iteration. However not all implementations of this class really
56 implement it like this (e.g. wxGTK does not) so you shouldn't rely on
57 Dispatch() being called from inside this function.
58
59 @return The argument passed to Exit() which terminated this event loop.
60 */
61 virtual int Run() = 0;
62
63 /**
64 Exit from the loop with the given exit code.
65 */
66 virtual void Exit(int rc = 0) = 0;
67
68 /**
69 Return true if any events are available.
70
71 If this method returns @true, calling Dispatch() will not block.
72 */
73 virtual bool Pending() const = 0;
74
75 /**
76 Dispatch a single event.
77
78 If there are currently no events in the queue, blocks until an event
79 becomes available.
80
81 @return @false only if the event loop should terminate.
82 */
83 virtual bool Dispatch() = 0;
84
85 /**
86 Return true if this event loop is currently running.
87
88 Notice that even if this event loop hasn't terminated yet but has just
89 spawned a nested (e.g. modal) event loop, this method would return
90 @false.
91 */
92 bool IsRunning() const;
93
94 /**
95 Called by wxWidgets to wake up the event loop even if it is currently
96 blocked inside Dispatch().
97 */
98 virtual void WakeUp() = 0;
99
100 protected:
101 /**
102 This function is called before the event loop terminates, whether this
103 happens normally (because of Exit() call) or abnormally (because of an
104 exception thrown from inside the loop).
105
106 Default version does nothing.
107 */
108 virtual void OnExit();
109 };
110
111 /**
112 @class wxEventLoopActivator
113
114 Makes an event loop temporarily active.
115
116 This class is used to make the event loop active during its life-time,
117 e.g.:
118 @code
119 class MyEventLoop : public wxEventLoopBase { ... };
120
121 void RunMyLoop()
122 {
123 MyEventLoop loop;
124 wxEventLoopActivator activate(&loop);
125
126 ...
127 } // the previously active event loop restored here
128 @endcode
129
130 @library{wxbase}
131 @category{appmanagement}
132
133 @see wxEventLoopBase
134 */
135 class wxEventLoopActivator
136 {
137 public:
138 /**
139 Makes the loop passed as the parameter currently active.
140
141 This saves the current return value of wxEventLoopBase::GetActive() and
142 then calls wxEventLoopBase::SetActive() with the given @a loop.
143 */
144 wxEventLoopActivator(wxEventLoopBase *loop);
145
146 /**
147 Restores the previously active event loop stored by the constructor.
148 */
149 ~wxEventLoopActivator();
150 };