StackOverflow2013

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POSharing data between model & view of an app
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copied!<p>I'm currently trying to find a "definitive" solution (meaning : finding a solution that seems efficient a complying with OOP precepts) to a recurring problem I've been experiencing for some time : the problem of shared data in different parts of my code.</p> <p><em>Take note that I'm <strong>not</strong> using any MVC framework anywhere here. I'm just refering to my data class as a Model and to the display class as a View (because its the proper names and have nothing to do with the MVC pattern, people made views & models way before the MVC pattern was "created").</em></p> <p>Here's my problem : Whenever I make an application that uses some quite expanded data (for example a game), I try to separate logic (movements, collisions, etc...) and display in two classes. But then, I stumble upon the problem : how to "bind" the data stored in my logic class with the corresponding display objects in my view class, without duplicating data, references, or other things between the different classes ?</p> <p>Lets take a basic example : </p> <ul> <li><p>I have a MyLogicClass, holding a Vector of "EntityData" objects (each with position, sizes, various states, everything to handle the logic of my items)</p></li> <li><p>And I have a MyViewClass, creating and displaying Sprites for each EntityData that are in the MyLogicClass, and make them move after them being updated in the game loop.</p></li> </ul> <p>The first thing that would come to my mind would be to store inside each data element its corresponding view, thus allowing me to loop throught my Vector to update the items logic then update the views accordingly. But that forces me to hold a MyLogicClass reference inside the MyViewClass, to be sure that I can target the entities data, forcing me to couple the two classes (things that I would prefer not to do).</p> <p>On the other hand, there's the solution of each Entity having an ID, both in my data model (MyLogicClass's EntityData objects having an ID parameter) and in my View class (Sprites holding a reference to its original entity data ID). But when I want to target a specific entity that forces me to loop for it in my data model, then loop for it again to find the related Sprite in my View. This solution allows me to have loose coupling between my data and my view, but looping through hundreds of elements twice every frame (can happen !) really sounds not performance optimized for me.</p> <p>I may be giving the whole problem a lot more importance that it should deserve, but I've been stumbling upon that more than one time, and I'd love to have some other views than mine about that.</p> <p>Do you guys have any advice / solution for such an issue ?</p> <p>Are there some other data formats / hierarchy that I may not be aware of for such case ?</p>

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