Commander

Commander models application actions as first class objects.

Every action is implemented as separate command class (subclass of CmdCommand) with #execute method and all state required for execution.

Commands are reusable objects and applications provide various ways to access them (shortcuts, context menu, buttons, etc.). This information is attached to command classes as activation strategies. Currently there are three types of activations:

• CmdShortcutCommandActivation
• CmdContextMenuCommandActivation
• CmdDragAndDropCommandActivation

Strategies annotate command as class annotations. Look at project ClassAnnotation for details. For example following method will allow RenamePackageCommand to be executed by shortcut in possible system browser:

RenamePackageCommand class>>packageBrowserShortcutActivation
    <classAnnotation>
    ^CmdShortcutCommandActivation by: $r meta for: PackageBrowserContext

And for context menu:

RenamePackageCommand class>>packageBrowserMenuActivation
    <classAnnotation>
    ^CmdContextMenuCommandActivation byRootGroupItemFor: PackageBrowserContext

Activation strategies are always created with application context where they can be applied (PackageBrowserContext in the example). Application should provide such contexts as subclasses of CmdToolContext with information about application state. Every widget can bring own context to interact with application as separate tool. For example system browser shows multiple panes which provide package context, class context and method context. And depending on the context the browser shows different menu and provides different shortcuts.

Installation

Metacello new
  baseline: 'Commander';
  repository: 'github://dionisiydk/Commander';
  load.

Use following snippet for stable dependency in your project baseline:

spec
    baseline: 'Commander'
    with: [ spec repository: 'github://dionisiydk/Commander:v0.3.x' ]