COP4226, Homework 4

Due Monday, 11/30

Avoid long methods. Each method that you create should be short, to promote encapsulation. If you have a method that is longer than 25 lines, then it probably needs to be divided into smaller methods.

Multi-SDI Application

This application will be an example of a Multiple - Single Document Interface (Multi-SDI) application. It will create a better notepad that can open multiple windows. The improved notepad will also look for prime numbers. Perhaps the name for the application should be NotePrime.

Be sure that I cannot crash your program. This means that you will need to implement validation appropriately. Do not swallow exceptions! If something goes wrong, be sure that the appropriate exception is thrown.

Be sure that dialogs open in appropriate places. Use docking, anchoring, splitting, minimum and maximum sizes to control the appearance of your application. Use your base classes and user controls from previous homeworks to improve the appearance of your application.

Under no circumstances should any child form access any part of a parent. Use interfaces appropriately.

Implement encapsulation. Separate the view from the document.

Under no circumstances may a thread change a variable that is not local to the thread. The thread may not change parameters.

Application Context

Use the Visual Basic application context.

• Create a multiple document - single instance application. This is not an MDI application, each new document will have its own top level form.
• Maintain the window menu for all open documents.
• Hint: start with the book example from Chapter 14. Fix the window menu as I indicated in class.
• Instead of having the main class register the window menu with the application context using a method, implement an interface for the main form that has a property for the window menu. When the main form registers with the application class, use the interface to access the window menu from the main form.
• Add another option for the application class that will print all the text from the top level forms.
  • Add another property to the main form interface for accessing the Print All menu item.
  • Before printing the content of each form, print a title page that contains the name of the form.
  • The application class will need a print document.
  • Hint: I inserted form feed characters into the string that is printed. During the print page handler, look for the form feed characters and force a new page by setting HasMorePages to true. Be sure the correct characters print on the correct pages.

Prime Thread

Allow an additional thread in the application that calculates prime numbers.

• A prime number is a number that is not divisible by any prime number less than its square root.
• Allow only one thread to be running at a time.
• Use a custom delegate to pass a custom class between the thread and the thread that called it.
• The user can set the value to start searching for the next prime, while the thread is running.
• The thread will continually test numbers sequentially. Each time it finds a new prime, notify the main thread.

Main Application

The main application will handle editing of the document. Just handle plain text. Do not do anything special for rich text.

• Allow the user to select the font and font color to display the text in the window. Each window can have its own font and color.
• Allow drag and drop of text.
• Allow copy and paste of text in the clipboard.
• Allow serialization and deserialization of each document.
  • Use a SaveFileDialog for serializing. Add a default extension of your choice.
  • Use an OpenFileDialog for deseraializing. Show only files with your extension. Allow for another option to display all files.
  • In additon to the text, each document should save the font and font color that is used in the window.

The main interface is for a text editor.

• Add a menu bar for all the options in the application.
• Add a toolbar for file new, file open, file save, file exit, print, print preview, print preview all, edit copy, edit paste, edit cut. It should appear directly below the main menu for the application. You may need to change the docking order in order to make it appear correctly.
• Add a rich text box that fills the remaining area. A rich text box has many methods that make life easy. You may use any method in rich text box.
• Make your application as user friendly as possible, using menus, toolstrips, tooltips, error providers, etc.

Allow printing and print preview of the document.

• Use an overloaded MeasureString method to paginate the document. Fill each page with the maximum number of lines that will fit within the actual margin bounds. Maintain the source formatting. By source formatting, I mean the line breaks and form feeds. You may use one font to display the text in the printed page
• Print a header on each page that contains the course aligned to the top left and the name of the assignment aligned to the top right. The header should be outside the actual margin bounds and within the actual page bounds.
• Print a footer on each page that contains your name centered and the page number aligned to the left. The header should be outside the actual margin bounds and within the actual page bounds.
• Use different fonts for the header, footer and content of the page. Use a serif font, a sans serif font and a monospace font. For one of them, use a generic font family. Make the header font bold; make the footer font italic.
• When printing is chosen, open a print dialog. Allow the user to print selections and ranges. You will need to know the total number of pages in order to do this. Hint: look in the book!

Allow print preview of all the documents by the application context.

• The Print All menu item should be handled by the application context.

Each open document should be able to start, stop, pause the thread. You may place these controls in the modeless dialog for the thread. The form only has to be able to open the modeless dialog. It does not need individual buttons for the thread.

• Enable and disable the buttons as appropriate.
• Stop the thread before closing the application.

Each open document should be able to open a modeless dialog that shows all the primes that have been found.

• Only allow one dialog to be open at a time for the entire application.
• New primes should populate the dialog as they are found.