Marble/GeoData/PointerVsImplicitShare

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Revision as of 14:26, 31 March 2010 by Bholst (talk | contribs)

Implicit sharing and storing objects as value is very reasonable for basic data as QStrings, but there are reasonable doubts regarding Placemarks and other GeoData. There are some possibilities:

  • Don't use implicit sharing at all and store all objects on the heap with a pointer to it.
  • Use implicit sharing and storing as value for GeoDataCoordinates only.
  • Use implicit sharing and storing as value for all GeoData classes.

To find out which is the wisest I try to look at every single class: (please add your thoughts here)

Others

  • GeoDataHotSpot This doesn't use Geo coordinates. I'm not sure if this really is GeoData, at all (I have not checked for what it is used).

Base data

  • GeoDataCoordinates This one is quite simple. It is not more than a QPoint in GeoCoordinates. This should stay implicilty shared.
  • GeoDataLatLonBox (GeoDataObject) It seems to nothing more than a QRect for GeoCoordinates. I'm not sure if it must be derived from GeoDataObject
    • GeoDataLatLonAltBox same for this
  • GeoDataAccuracy Should be base data => value
  • GeoDataLod
  • GeoDataRegion I'm not sure if it belongs into this group ...


Geometric structures

  • GeoDataGeometry The base class for all geometric. We could want a pointer for this, so using it as data may not be the right way.
    • GeoDataPoint This one uses multiple inheritance (GeoDataCoordinates). I don't think that this is semantically correct.
    • GeoDataLineString
      • GeoDataLinearRing
    • GeoDataMultiGeometry
    • GeoDataPolygon

Features

  • GeoDataFeature These should be pointered, so GeoGraphicsItems could refer to them and change them easily.
    • GeoDataFeature
    • GeoDataContainer
      • GeoDataFolder (by the way, this is an object which probably wouldn't need a GeoGraphics representation)
      • GeoDataDocument (GeoDocument)

views

  • GeoDataAbstractView It's nothing more than a view, this could stay implicitly shared.
    • GeoDataLookAt Same for this as this is a child.


styles

  • GeoDataColorStyle
    • GeoDataIconStyle
    • GeoDataLabelStyle
    • GeoDataLineStyle
    • GeoDataPolyStyle
  • GeoDataStyleSelector
    • GeoDataStyle
    • GeoDataStyleMap (QMap<QString, QString>)

It is possible to group these things in two groups:

  • objects that represent data which is actually shown on the map:
    • Features
  • objects that are abstract
    • everything else :)

I'm not sure to which of the groups the geometry classes belongs.

A compromise could be to use the classes of the first group with a pointer and all others as a value. In KML all items are children of GeoDataObject (except GeoDataCoordinates). See here.