CODEWITHSUNDEEP
model-view-controller
CodeMonkey
CodeMonkey

Reputation: 1835

Model View Controller - Who Does What?

I keep finding conflicting information overall, nothing authoritative, and nothing specific enough to explain the exact issue that my brother and I are debating about. So can someone put this question to rest and hopefully with some authoritative-type documentation?

In short: Which of the 3 components in MVC is responsible for determining the size and location of an object to be displayed on the screen?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 82

Answers (1)

Dylan Meeus
Dylan Meeus

Reputation: 5802

The key of MVC is trying to achieve loose coupling between classes. This is done by applying several patterns (MVC is a compound pattern, meaning it's a composition of several other patterns).

In here you find "Strategy between View & Controller", "Composite on View" and "Observer between Model & View/Controller".

There is a lot of debate of how it all should be handled, but the general term is this:

Something happens on view -> View informs Controller

                       -> Controller asks Model to change data
                       -> Controller asks View to update display
                       -> Model informs View state has changed
                       -> View pulls data from model

^ That's using pulling in the observer pattern which is considered "more correct", but it really is a guideline not a rule. Keeping this in mind, the View is responsible for the location of view objects (using composite pattern), and the controller is just a plugin so the actions know how to be sent to the model. This allows for easy switching between views & controllers. (Which creates bidirectional associativity but that's another story)

Upvotes: 1

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