1. Stéphane Ducasse 1
Stéphane Ducasse
stephane.ducasse@inria.fr
http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/
Visitor

2. S.Ducasse 2
Intent: Represent an operation to be performed on
the elements of an object structure in a class
separate from the elements themselves. Visitor lets
you define a new operation without changing the
classes of the elements on which it operates.
Visitor Intent

3. S.Ducasse 3
Visitor Possible Structure

4. S.Ducasse 4
Whenever you have a number of items on which you
have to perform a number of actions
When you ‘decouple’ the actions from the items.
Examples:
the parse tree (ProgramNode) uses a visitor for the
compilation (emitting code on CodeStream)
GraphicsContext is a visitor for VisualComponents,
Geometrics, and some other ones (CharacterArray, ...)
Rendering documents
When to use a Visitor

5. S.Ducasse 5
So all our problems are solved, no?
Well...
how to define it
when to use a visitor
control over item traversal
choosing the granularity of visitor methods
implementation tricks
Applying the Visitor

6. S.Ducasse 6
Language to deal with arithmetic expressions.
It supports one kind of number, and has +, *, (, )
We want to evaluate expressions, and print them.
Visitor Toy Example

7. S.Ducasse 7
Example
Evaluating
1 + 1
gives = 2
1 + (3 * 2)
gives 7
Printing
+1*32

8. S.Ducasse 8
Visitor Toy Example: ParseTree

9. S.Ducasse 9
Expressions creation
1
ENumber value: 1
(3 * 2)
Times left: (ENumber value: 3) right: (ENumber value: 2)
1 + (3 * 2)
Plus
left: (ENumber value: 1)
right: (Times left: (ENumber value: 3) right: (ENumber value: 2))
Of course in Smalltalk we can just extend Number so no
need of ENumber value:.....

10. S.Ducasse 10
Two solutions:
add methods for evaluating, printing, ... on Expression and
its subclasses
create a Visitor, add the visit methods on Expression and
its subclasses, and implement visitors for evaluation,
printing, ...
Implementing the Actions

11. S.Ducasse 11
Visitor Toy Example Solution 1

12. S.Ducasse 12
Expressions creation
(ENumber value: 1) evaluate
> 1
(Times left: (ENumber value: 3) right: (ENumber value: 2))
evaluate
> 6
(Plus left: (ENumber value: 1) right: (Times left: (ENumber
value: 3) right: (ENumber value: 2))) evaluate
> 7

13. S.Ducasse 13
printing is not easy may need specific instance variables
adding it directly on Expression clutters Expression
may need to add instance variables that are not part of the tree
behavior of the printer are mixed with expressions

14. S.Ducasse 14
Visitor Toy Example 2

15. S.Ducasse 15
Expressions creation
Evaluator evaluate: (ENumber value: 1)
> 1
Evaluator evaluate: (Times left: (ENumber value: 3) right: (ENumber
value: 2))
> 6
Evaluator evaluate: (Plus left: (ENumber value: 1) right: (Times left:
(ENumber value: 3) right: (ENumber value: 2)))
> 7
Evaluator>>evaluate: anExpression
^ anExpression acceptVisitor: self

16. S.Ducasse 16
Evaluator
Evaluator>>visitNumber: aNumber
^ aNumber value
Evaluator>>visitPlus: anExpression
|l r|
l := anExpression left acceptVisitor: self.
r := anExpression right acceptVisitor: self.
^ l + r
Evaluator>>visitPlus: anExpression
|l r|
l := anExpression left acceptVisitor: self.
r := anExpression right acceptVisitor: self.
^ l * r

17. S.Ducasse 17
Printer
Visitor subclass: #Printer
iv:‘stream level’
Printer>>visitNumber: aNumber
stream nextPutAll: aNumber value asString
Printer>>visitPlus: anExpression
stream nextPutAll:‘+’.
anExpression left acceptVisitor: self.
anExpression right acceptVisitor: self.
Printer>>visitPlus: anExpression
stream nextPutAll:‘*’.
anExpression left acceptVisitor: self.
anExpression right acceptVisitor: self.

18. S.Ducasse 18
Smalltalk has class extensions:
method addition
method replacement
So ‘Decoupling’ actions from items can be done:
e.g., put all the printing methods together.
take care: works only for methods
makes it also really easy to package a visitor!
Note: this is a static solution!
Smalltalk’s class extensions

19. S.Ducasse 19
Somewhere in the visitor, items are traversed.
Different places where the traversal can be
implemented:
in the visitor
on the items hierarchy
Controlling the traversal

20. S.Ducasse 20
Traversal on the Visitor

21. S.Ducasse 21
Traversal on the Items

22. S.Ducasse 22
Sometimes you can represent contextual
information by having more specialized visit
methods
So visitors have more information for implementing
their operations
Granularity of Visit Methods

23. S.Ducasse 23
doNode: is invoked from doVariables: and
doSequence:temporaries:statements:
Granularity of Visit Methods

24. S.Ducasse 24
Here doTemporaryVariable: provides the context for
treating doVariable:
Refined Granularity

25. S.Ducasse 25
You can implement it as we have shown before.
But notice the general structure of the methods!
This can be taken as advantage:
code can be generated for a visitor.
the method can be performed/invoked
But take care:
only works when there is a full correspondence.
can make the code hard to understand.
Implementation Tricks

26. S.Ducasse 26
Using #perform:

27. S.Ducasse 27
Use a Visitor:
when the operations on items change a lot.
Do not use a visitor:
when the items you want to visit change a lot.
Question: But how do we know what to choose up-
front?
When to Use a Visitor