How to separate GUI from logic in MFC?

2
votes

I want to develop a MFC application in VS2010. I hope to separate GUI from the logic, so that modifying GUI can become much easier. But I don't know how to design the classes to implement this function. Which design pattern should I use? Does MFC have any special way to deal with the problem?

Moreover, I am not familiar with design patterns. So I hope someone can give me samples or detailed articles explaining this. (Also I prefer a less complicated pattern! ^^)

Thank you very much!

2
c++design-patternsuser-interfacemfclogic

2 Answers

4
votes

The MFC already provide such a separation in their SDI/MDI based templates. For example, you have a CWinApp instance and a CMainFrame for the program itself. For each file in MDI apps you have a CDocument and a CView class.

Note:

  • The MFC don't use the classic MVC separation, they combine the view and controller into a single UI part.
  • The MFC are not strict about this, you can also put a button handler into the application/document, not only into the frame/view.
  • You don't fully separate the model from the MFC, it is still built on that. If you want to achieve this separation, you have to do additional work, but then you have a module that you can test completely separately. This allows you to use test-driven development, which is more difficult when embedded into a GUI.
0
votes

May be it will be helpful http://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/uiArchs.html . Also try to find MVC (model/view/controller) pattern.