Visualizing LINQ Sequences with GDI+, Page 2

The utility is capable of producing rectangle sub-divisions as suggested by the roughly created grid in the comment in the first part of the listing. You can specify the number of vertical and horizontal sub-rectangles, which horizontal and vertical sub-rectangle to return, and CenterRect (at the end) will return a rectangle centered vertically and horizontally within another rectangle.

The reason shared methods were used is that the Rectangles class itself stores no data; that is, it contains no fields, properties, or events. Following a general OOP rule such a class is naturally specified as a class containing all shared members.

Defining a State-Full Rectangle Manager

Next, I wanted to able to track individual rectangles, so a state-full RectangleManager was defined. This class keeps track of its horizontal and vertical sub-rectangles (with hSegments and vSegments), the desired padding between rectangles, and the original outer rectangle. This class is useful for keeping track of a specific rectangle set being used. Listing 2 contains the RectangleManager.

Listing 2: The RectangleManager is state-full—keeping track of the rectangle under management.

Imports System.Collections

Public Class RectangleManager
   'Implements IEnumerator
   ' note to self - implement IEnumerator so we can do a foreach
   ' over the segments


   Public Sub New(ByVal Rect As Rectangle, _
      ByVal hSegments As Integer, ByVal vSegments As Integer)
      Me.Rect = Rect
      Me.vSegments = vSegments
      Me.hSegments = hSegments
   End Sub

   Public Sub New(ByVal Rect As Rectangle, _
      ByVal hSegments As Integer, _
      ByVal vSegments As Integer, ByVal padding As Integer)
      Me.Rect = Rect
      Me.vSegments = vSegments
      Me.hSegments = hSegments
      Me.padding = padding
   End Sub

   Private Rect As Rectangle
   Private vSegments As Integer
   Private hSegments As Integer
   Private padding As Integer = 4

   Public Function GetSubRect(ByVal xSegment As Integer, _
      ByVal ySegment As Integer) As Rectangle
      Return Rectangles.GetSubRect(Rect, xSegment, ySegment, _
      hSegments, _
      vSegments, padding)
   End Function

   Public Function CenterRect(ByVal size As SizeF, _
      ByVal xSegment As Integer, _
      ByVal ySegment As Integer)
      Return Rectangles.CenterRect(size, GetSubRect(xSegment, _
         ySegment))
   End Function

End Class

Visualizing a LINQ Query with the Rectangle Manager

A LINQ query returns a sequence. (Think collection!) By using ellipses, you can visualize the sequence as a linear row of circles with each circle containing the text (or a representation of the text) in the circle itself. Listing 3 shows the form for representing the sequence visually, and Listing 4 contains a concrete behavior class that contains the draw-sequence behavior. (You can look up the State Behavior Pattern on dofactory.com or the GoF book on Design Patterns.)

Listing 3: The Form using a state behavior pattern; the Form shows the visual representation of the LINQ query.

Public Class Form1

   Private state As MyStatePattern

   Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
   ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

      state = New DrawSequenceState(p)

   End Sub

   Private p As Pen = New Pen(Color.Red, 4)

   Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, _
      ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) _
      Handles Me.Paint

      state.Draw(e.Graphics, Font)

   End Sub


   Private Sub DrawRectanglesToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal _
      sender As System.Object, _
      ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
      DrawRectanglesToolStripMenuItem.Click

      state = New DrawRectState(p)
      Invalidate()

   End Sub

   Private Sub DrawEllipsesToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender _
      As System.Object, _
      ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
      DrawEllipsesToolStripMenuItem.Click

      state = New DrawEllipseState(p)
      Invalidate()

   End Sub

   Private Sub DrawSequenceToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender _
      As System.Object, _
      ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
      DrawSequenceToolStripMenuItem.Click

      state = New DrawSequenceState(p)
      Invalidate()


   End Sub
End Class