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<title>Basic front-end</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="boostbook.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL-NS Stylesheets V1.75.2"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="Meta State Machine (MSM) V2.10"><link rel="up" href="ch03.html" title="Chapter 3. Tutorial"><link rel="prev" href="ch03.html" title="Chapter 3. Tutorial"><link rel="next" href="ch03s03.html" title="Functor front-end"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Basic front-end</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch03.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 3. Tutorial</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch03s03.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1" title="Basic front-end"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="d0e418"></a><span class="command"><strong><a name="basic-front-end"></a></strong></span>Basic front-end</h2></div></div></div><p>This is the historical front-end, inherited from the MPL book. It provides a
transition table made of rows of different names and functionality. Actions and
guards are defined as methods and referenced through a pointer in the
transition. This front-end provides a simple interface making easy state
machines easy to define, but more complex state machines a bit harder.</p><div class="sect2" title="A simple example"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e424"></a>A simple example</h3></div></div></div><p>Let us have a look at a state machine diagram of the founding
example:</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/SimpleTutorial.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>We are now going to build it with MSM's basic front-end. An <a class="link" href="examples/SimpleTutorial.cpp" target="_top">implementation</a> is also
provided.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Transition table"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e438"></a>Transition table</h3></div></div></div><p>As previously stated, MSM is based on the transition table, so let us
define one:</p><p>struct transition_table : mpl::vector<</p><p>
</p><table frame="void" id="d0e447"><tbody><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>Start</td>
<td>Event</td>
<td>Next</td>
<td>Action</td>
<td>Guard</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>play,</td>
<td>Playing,</td>
<td>&player_::start_playback</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>open_close,</td>
<td>Open,</td>
<td>&player_::open_drawer</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>_row <</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>stop,</td>
<td>Stopped</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Open ,</td>
<td>open_close ,</td>
<td>Empty ,</td>
<td>&player_::close_drawer</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Empty ,</td>
<td>open_close ,</td>
<td>Open ,</td>
<td>&player_::open_drawer</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>row <</td>
<td>Empty ,</td>
<td>cd_detected ,</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>&player_::store_cd_info ,</td>
<td>&player_::good_disk_format</td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>row <</td>
<td>Empty ,</td>
<td>cd_detected ,</td>
<td>Playing ,</td>
<td>&player_::store_cd_info ,</td>
<td>&player_::auto_start</td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Playing ,</td>
<td>stop ,</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>&player_::stop_playback</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Playing ,</td>
<td>pause ,</td>
<td>Paused ,</td>
<td>&player_::pause_playback</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Playing ,</td>
<td>open_close ,</td>
<td>Open ,</td>
<td>&player_::stop_and_open</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td> Paused ,</td>
<td>end_pause ,</td>
<td>Playing ,</td>
<td>&player_::resume_playback</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td> Paused ,</td>
<td>stop ,</td>
<td>Stopped ,</td>
<td>&player_::stop_playback</td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td> Paused ,</td>
<td>open_close ,</td>
<td>Open ,</td>
<td>&player_::stop_and_open</td>
<td> </td>
<td>></td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>---------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>> {};</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>You will notice that this is almost exactly our founding example. The only
change in the transition table is the different types of transitions (rows).
The founding example forces one to define an action method and offers no
guards. You have 4 basic row types:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">row</code> takes 5 arguments: start state, event, target
state, action and guard.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">a_row</code> (“a” for action) allows defining only the
action and omit the guard condition.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">g_row</code> (“g” for guard) allows omitting the action
behavior and defining only the guard.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">_row</code> allows omitting action and guard.</p></li></ul></div><p>The signature for an action methods is void method_name (event
const&), for example:</p><pre class="programlisting">void stop_playback(stop const&)</pre><p>Action methods return nothing and take the argument as const reference. Of
course nothing forbids you from using the same action for several
events:</p><pre class="programlisting">template <class Event> void stop_playback(Eventconst&)</pre><p>Guards have as only difference the return value, which is a
boolean:</p><pre class="programlisting">bool good_disk_format(cd_detected const& evt)</pre><p>The transition table is actually a MPL vector (or list), which brings the
limitation that the default maximum size of the table is 20. If you need
more transitions, overriding this default behavior is necessary, so you need
to add before any header:</p><pre class="programlisting">#define BOOST_MPL_CFG_NO_PREPROCESSED_HEADERS
#define BOOST_MPL_LIMIT_VECTOR_SIZE 30 //or whatever you need
#define BOOST_MPL_LIMIT_MAP_SIZE 30 //or whatever you need </pre><p>The other limitation is that the MPL types are defined only up to 50
entries. For the moment, the only solution to achieve more is to add headers
to the MPL (luckily, this is not very complicated).</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Defining states with entry/exit actions"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e974"></a>Defining states with entry/exit actions</h3></div></div></div><p>While states were enums in the MPL book, they now are classes, which
allows them to hold data, provide entry, exit behaviors and be reusable (as
they do not know anything about the containing state machine). To define a
state, inherit from the desired state type. You will mainly use simple
states:</p><p>struct Empty : public msm::front::state<> {};</p><p>They can optionally provide entry and exit behaviors:</p><pre class="programlisting">
struct Empty : public msm::front::state<>
{
template <class Event, class Fsm>
void on_entry(Event const&, Fsm& )
{std::cout <<"entering: Empty" << std::endl;}
template <class Event, class Fsm>
void on_exit(Event const&, Fsm& )
{std::cout <<"leaving: Empty" << std::endl;}
};
</pre><p>Notice how the entry and exit behaviors are templatized on the event and
state machine. Being generic facilitates reuse. There are more state types
(terminate, interrupt, pseudo states, etc.) corresponding to the UML
standard state types. These will be described in details in the next
sections.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Defining a simple state machine"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e987"></a>Defining a simple state machine</h3></div></div></div><p>Declaring a state machine is straightforward and is done with a high
signal / noise ratio. In our player example, we declare the state machine
as:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct player_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<player_>{
/* see below */}</pre><p>This declares a state machine using the basic front-end. We now declare
inside the state machine structure the initial state:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef Empty initial_state;</pre><p>
</p><p>And that is about all of what is absolutely needed. In the example, the
states are declared inside the state machine for readability but this is not
a requirements, states can be declared wherever you like.</p><p>All what is left to do is to pick a back-end (which is quite simple as
there is only one at the moment):</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef msm::back::state_machine<player_> player;</pre><p>
</p><p>You now have a ready-to-use state machine with entry/exit actions, guards,
transition actions, a message queue so that processing an event can generate
another event. The state machine also adapted itself to your need and
removed almost all features we didn't use in this simple example. Note that
this is not per default the fastest possible state machine. See the section
"getting more speed" to know how to get the maximum speed. In a nutshell,
MSM cannot know about your usage of some features so you will have to
explicitly tell it.</p><p>State objects are built automatically with the state machine. They will
exist until state machine destruction. MSM is using Boost.Fusion behind the
hood. This unfortunately means that if you define more than 10 states, you
will need to extend the default:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">#define FUSION_MAX_VECTOR_SIZE 20 // or whatever you need
</pre><p>
</p><p>When an unexpected event is fired, the <code class="code">no_transition(event, state
machine, state id)</code> method of the state machine is called . By
default, this method simply asserts when called. It is possible to overwrite
the <code class="code">no_transition</code> method to define a different handling:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">template <class Fsm,class Event>
void no_transition(Event const& e, Fsm& ,int state){...}</pre><p>
</p><p><span class="underline">Note</span>: you might have noticed that
the tutorial calls <code class="code">start()</code> on the state machine just after
creation. The start method will initiate the state machine, meaning it will
activate the initial state, which means in turn that the initial state's
entry behavior will be called. The reason why we need this will be explained
in the <a class="link" href="ch03s05.html#backend-start">back-end part</a>. After a call
to start, the state machine is ready to process events.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Defining a submachine"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1042"></a>Defining a submachine</h3></div></div></div><p>We now want to extend our last state machine by making the Playing state a
state machine itself (a submachine).</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/CompositeTutorial.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>Again, an <a class="link" href="examples/CompositeTutorial.cpp" target="_top">example</a>
is also provided.</p><p>A submachine really is a state machine itself, so we declare Playing as
such, choosing a front-end and a back-end:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct Playing_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<Playing_>{...}
typedef msm::back::state_machine<Playing_> Playing;</pre><p>
</p><p>Like for any state machine, one also needs a transition table and an
initial state:</p><p> struct transition_table : mpl::vector<</p><table id="d0e1067"><tbody><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>Start</td>
<td>Event</td>
<td>Next</td>
<td>Action</td>
<td>Guard</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>------------------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Song1 ,</td>
<td>NextSong,</td>
<td>Song2,</td>
<td>&Playing_::start_next_song </td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Song2 ,</td>
<td>PreviousSong,</td>
<td>Song1,</td>
<td>&Playing_::start_prev_song </td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Song2 ,</td>
<td>NextSong,</td>
<td>Song3,</td>
<td>&Playing_::start_next_song </td>
<td> </td>
<td>>,</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>a_row <</td>
<td>Song3 ,</td>
<td>PreviousSong ,</td>
<td>Song2 ,</td>
<td>&Playing_::start_prev_song </td>
<td> </td>
<td>></td>
</tr><tr>
<td>//</td>
<td>+---------+</td>
<td>-------------+</td>
<td>---------+</td>
<td>------------------------------+</td>
<td>----------------------+</td>
<td> </td>
</tr><tr>
<td>> {};</td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef Song1 initial_state; </pre><p>
</p><p>This is about all you need to do. MSM will now automatically recognize
Playing as a submachine and all events handled by Playing (NextSong and
PreviousSong) will now be automatically forwarded to Playing whenever this
state is active. All other state machine features described later are also
available. You can even decide to use a state machine sometimes as
submachine or sometimes as an independent state machine.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Orthogonal regions, terminate state, event deferring"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1260"></a>Orthogonal regions, terminate state, event deferring</h3></div></div></div><p>It is a very common problem in many state machines to have to handle
errors. It usually involves defining a transition from all the states to a
special error state. Translation: not fun. It is also not practical to find
from which state the error originated. The following diagram shows an
example of what clearly becomes not very readable:</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/error_no_regions.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>This is neither very readable nor beautiful. And we do not even have any
action on the transitions yet to make it even less readable.</p><p>Luckily, UML provides a helpful concept, orthogonal regions. See them as
lightweight state machines running at the same time inside a common state
machine and having the capability to influence one another. The effect is
that you have several active states at any time. We can therefore keep our
state machine from the previous example and just define a new region made of
two states, AllOk and ErrorMode. AllOk is most of the time active. But the
error_found error event makes the second region move to the new active state
ErrorMode. This event does not interest the main region so it will simply be
ignored. "<code class="code">no_transition</code>" will be called only if no region at
all handles the event. Also, as UML mandates, every region gets a chance of
handling the event, in the order as declared by the
<code class="code">initial_state</code> type.</p><p>Adding an orthogonal region is easy, one only needs to declare more states
in the <code class="code">initial_state</code> typedef. So, adding a new region with
AllOk as the region's initial state is:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef mpl::vector<Empty,AllOk> initial_state;</pre><p>
</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/Orthogonal-deferred.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>Furthermore, when you detect an error, you usually do not want events to
be further processed. To achieve this, we use another UML feature, terminate
states. When any region moves to a terminate state, the state machine
“terminates” (the state machine and all its states stay alive) and all
events are ignored. This is of course not mandatory, one can use orthogonal
regions without terminate states. MSM also provides a small extension to
UML, interrupt states. If you declare ErrorMode as interrupt state instead
of terminate state, the state machine will not handle any event other than
the one which ends the interrupt. So it's like a terminate state, with the
difference that you are allowed to resume the state machine when a condition
(like handling of the original error) is met. </p><p><span class="command"><strong><a name="basic-defer"></a></strong></span>Last but not least, this example also shows
here the handling of event deferring. Let's say someone puts a disc and
immediately presses play. The event cannot be handled, yet you'd want it to
be handled at a later point and not force the user to press play again. The
solution is to define it as deferred in the Empty and Open states and get it
handled in the first state where the event is not to be deferred. It can
then be handled or rejected. In this example, when Stopped becomes active,
the event will be handled because only Empty and Open defer the
event.</p><p>UML defines event deferring as a state property. To accommodate this, MSM
lets you specify this in states by providing a <code class="code">deferred_events</code>
type:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct Empty : public msm::front::state<>
{
// if the play event is fired while in this state, defer it until a state
// handles or rejects it
typedef mpl::vector<play> deferred_events;
...
}; </pre><p>Please have a look at the <a class="link" href="examples/Orthogonal-deferred.cpp" target="_top">complete
example</a>.</p><p>While this is wanted by UML and is simple, it is not always practical
because one could wish to defer only in certain conditions. One could also
want to make this be part of a transition action with the added bonus of a
guard for more sophisticated behaviors. It would also be conform to the MSM
philosophy to get as much as possible in the transition table, where you
have the whole state machine structure. This is also possible but not
practical with this front-end so we will need to pick a different row from
the functor front-end. For a complete description of the <code class="code">Row</code>
type, please have a look at the <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch03s03.html#functor-front-end">functor front-end.</a></strong></span></p><p>First, as there is no state where MSM can automatically find out the usage
of this feature, we need to require deferred events capability explicitly,
by adding a type in the state machine definition:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct player_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<player_>
{
typedef int activate_deferred_events;
...
}; </pre><p>We can now defer an event in any transition of the transition table by
using as action the predefined <code class="code">msm::front::Defer</code> functor, for
example:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">Row < Empty , play , none , Defer , none ></pre><p>
</p><p>This is an internal transition row(see <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch03s02.html#internal-transitions">internal transitions</a></strong></span>) but
you can ignore this for the moment. It just means that we are not leaving
the Empty state. What matters is that we use Defer as action. This is
roughly equivalent to the previous syntax but has the advantage of giving
you all the information in the transition table with the added power of
transition behavior.</p><p>The second difference is that as we now have a transition defined, this
transition can play in the resolution of <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch02s02.html#transition-conflict">transition conflicts</a></strong></span>. For
example, we could model an "if (condition2) move to Playing else if
(condition1) defer play event":</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">Row < Empty , play , none , Defer , condition1 >,
g_row < Empty , play , Playing , &player_::condition2 ></pre><p>
</p><p>Please have a look at <a class="link" href="examples/Orthogonal-deferred2.cpp" target="_top">this possible implementation</a>.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="History"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1351"></a>History</h3></div></div></div><p>UML defines two types of history, Shallow History and Deep History. In the
previous examples, if the player was playing the second song and the user
pressed pause, leaving Playing, at the next press on the play button, the
Playing state would become active and the first song would play again. Soon
would the first client complaints follow. They'd of course demand, that if
the player was paused, then it should remember which song was playing. But
it the player was stopped, then it should restart from the first song. How
can it be done? Of course, you could add a bit of programming logic and
generate extra events to make the second song start if coming from Pause.
Something like: </p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">if (Event == end_pause)
{
for (int i=0;i< song number;++i) {player.process_event(NextSong()); }
} </pre><p>
</p><p>Not much to like in this example, isn't it? To solve this problem, you
define what is called a shallow or a deep history. A shallow history
reactivates the last active substate of a submachine when this submachine
becomes active again. The deep history does the same recursively, so if this
last active substate of the submachine was itself a submachine, its last
active substate would become active and this will continue recursively until
an active state is a normal state. For example, let us have a look at the
following UML diagram: </p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/HistoryTutorial.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>Notice that the main difference compared to previous diagrams is that the
initial state is gone and replaced by a History symbol (the H inside a
circle).</p><p>As explained in the <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch02s02.html#uml-history">small UML
tutorial</a></strong></span>, History is a good concept with a not completely
satisfying specification. MSM kept the concept but not the specification and
goes another way by making this a policy and you can add your own history
types (the <a class="link" href="re02.html#history-interface">reference</a> explains
what needs to be done). Furthermore, History is a backend policy. This
allows you to reuse the same state machine definition with different history
policies in different contexts.</p><p>Concretely, your frontend stays unchanged:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct Playing_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<Playing_></pre><p>
</p><p>You then add the policy to the backend as second parameter:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef msm::back::state_machine<Playing_,
msm::back::ShallowHistory<mpl::vector<end_pause> > > Playing;</pre><p>
</p><p>This states that a shallow history must be activated if the Playing state
machine gets activated by the end_pause event and only this one (or any
other event added to the mpl::vector). If the state machine was in the
Stopped state and the event play was generated, the history would not be
activated and the normal initial state would become active. By default,
history is disabled. For your convenience the library provides in addition
to ShallowHistory a non-UML standard AlwaysHistory policy (likely to be your
main choice) which always activates history, whatever event triggers the
submachine activation. Deep history is not available as a policy (but could
be added). The reason is that it would conflict with policies which
submachines could define. Of course, if for example, Song1 were a state
machine itself, it could use the ShallowHistory policy itself thus creating
Deep History for itself. An <a class="link" href="examples/History.cpp" target="_top">example</a> is also provided.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Completion (anonymous) transitions"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1396"></a>Completion (anonymous) transitions</h3></div></div></div><p><span class="command"><strong><a name="anonymous-transitions"></a></strong></span>The following diagram shows an
example making use of this feature:</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/Anonymous.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>Anonymous transitions are transitions without a named event. This means
that the transition automatically fires when the predecessor state is
entered (to be exact, after the entry action). Otherwise it is a normal
transition with actions and guards. Why would you need something like that?
A possible case would be if a part of your state machine implements some
algorithm, where states are steps of the algorithm implementation. Then,
using several anonymous transitions with different guard conditions, you are
actually implementing some if/else statement. Another possible use would be
a real-time system called at regular intervals and always doing the same
thing, meaning implementing the same algorithm. The advantage is that once
you know how long a transition takes to execute on the system, by
calculating the longest path (the number of transitions from start to end),
you can pretty much know how long your algorithm will take in the worst
case, which in turns tells you how much of a time frame you are to request
from a scheduler. </p><p>If you are using Executable UML (a good book describing it is "Executable
UML, a foundation for Model-Driven Architecture"), you will notice that it
is common for a state machine to generate an event to itself only to force
leaving a state. Anonymous transitions free you from this constraint.</p><p>If you do not use this feature in a concrete state machine, MSM will
deactivate it and you will not pay for it. If you use it, there is however a
small performance penalty as MSM will try to fire a compound event (the
other UML name for anonymous transitions) after every taken transition. This
will therefore double the event processing cost, which is not as bad as it
sounds as MSM’s execution speed is very high anyway.</p><p>To define such a transition, use “none” as event in the transition table,
for example:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">row < State3 , none , State4 , &p::State3ToState4 , &p::always_true ></pre><p>
</p><p><a class="link" href="examples/AnonymousTutorial.cpp" target="_top">An implementation</a>
of the state machine diagram is also provided.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Internal transitions"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1423"></a><span class="command"><strong><a name="internal-transitions"></a></strong></span>Internal transitions</h3></div></div></div><p>Internal transitions are transitions executing in the scope of the active
state, a simple state or a submachine. One can see them as a self-transition
of this state, without an entry or exit action called. This is useful when
all you want is to execute some code for a given event in a given
state.</p><p>Internal transitions are specified as having a higher priority than normal
transitions. While it makes sense for a submachine with exit points, it is
surprising for a simple state. MSM lets you define the transition priority
by setting the transition’s position inside the transition table (see
<span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch06.html#run-to-completion">internals</a></strong></span> ). The
difference between "normal" and internal transitions is that internal
transitions have no target state, therefore we need new row types. We had
a_row, g_row, _row and row, we now add a_irow, g_irow, _irow and irow which
are like normal transitions but define no target state. For, example an
internal transition with a guard condition could be:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">g_irow < Empty /*state*/,cd_detected/*event*/,&p::internal_guard/* guard */></pre><p>
</p><p>These new row types can be placed anywhere in the transition table so that
you can still have your state machine structure grouped together. The only
difference of behavior with the UML standard is the missing notion of higher
priority for internal transitions. Please have a look at <a class="link" href="examples/SimpleTutorialInternal.cpp" target="_top">the
example</a>.</p><p>It is also possible to do it the UML-conform way by declaring a transition
table called <code class="code">internal transition_table</code> inside the state itself
and using internal row types. For example:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct Empty : public msm::front::state<>
{
struct internal_transition_table : mpl::vector<
a_internal < cd_detected , Empty, &Empty::internal_action >
> {};
};</pre><p>This declares an internal transition table called
internal_transition_table and reacting on the event cd_detected by calling
internal_action on Empty. Let us note a few points:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>internal tables are NOT called transition_table but
internal_transition_table</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>they use different but similar row types: a_internal,
g_internal, _internal and internal.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>These types take as first template argument the triggering
event and then the action and guard method. Note that the only
real difference to classical rows is the extra argument before
the function pointer. This is the type on which the function
will be called.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>This also allows you, if you wish, to use actions and guards
from another state of the state machine or in the state machine
itself.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>submachines can have an internal transition table and a
classical transition table.</p></li></ul></div><p>The <a class="link" href="examples/TestInternal.cpp" target="_top">following example</a>
makes use of an a_internal. It also uses functor-based internal transitions
which will be explained in <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch03s03.html#functor-internal-transitions">the functor
front-end</a></strong></span>, please ignore them for the moment. Also note that
the state-defined internal transitions, having the highest priority (as
mandated by the UML standard), are tried before those defined inside the
state machine transition table.</p><p>Which method should you use? It depends on what you need:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>the first version (using irow) is simpler and likely to
compile faster. It also lets you choose the priority of your
internal transition.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>the second version is more logical from a UML perspective and
lets you make states more useful and reusable. It also allows
you to call actions and guards on any state of the state
machine.</p></li></ul></div><p>
<span class="command"><strong><a name="internal-transitions-note"></a></strong></span><span class="underline"><span class="bold"><strong>Note</strong></span></span>: There is an added
possibility coming from this feature. The
<code class="code">internal_transition_table</code> transitions being added directly
inside the main state machine's transition table, it is possible, if it is
more to your state, to distribute your state machine definition a bit like
Boost.Statechart, leaving to the state machine itself the only task of
declaring the states it wants to use using the
<code class="code">explicit_creation</code> type definition. While this is not the
author's favorite way, it is still possible. A simplified example using only
two states will show this possibility:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/DistributedTable.cpp" target="_top">state machine definition</a></p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Empty <a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/Empty.hpp" target="_top">header</a> and <a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/Empty.cpp" target="_top">cpp</a></p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Open <a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/Open.hpp" target="_top">header</a> and <a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/Open.cpp" target="_top">cpp</a></p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a class="link" href="examples/distributed_table/Events.hpp" target="_top">events definition</a></p></li></ul></div><p>There is an added bonus offered for submachines, which can have both the
standard transition_table and an internal_transition_table (which has a
higher priority). This makes it easier if you decide to make a full
submachine from a state. It is also slightly faster than the standard
alternative, adding orthogonal regions, because event dispatching will, if
accepted by the internal table, not continue to the subregions. This gives
you a O(1) dispatch instead of O(number of regions). While the example is
with eUML, the same is also possible with any front-end.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="more row types"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1525"></a><span class="command"><strong><a name="basic-row2"></a></strong></span>more row types</h3></div></div></div><p>It is also possible to write transitions using actions and guards not just
from the state machine but also from its contained states. In this case, one
must specify not just a method pointer but also the object on which to call
it. This transition row is called, not very originally, <code class="code">row2</code>.
They come, like normal transitions in four flavors: <code class="code">a_row2, g_row2,
_row2 and row2</code>. For example, a transition calling an action from
the state Empty could be:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">a_row2<Stopped,open_close,Open,Empty
/*action source*/,&Empty::open_drawer/*action*/></pre><p>
</p><p>The same capabilities are also available for internal transitions so that
we have: <code class="code">a_irow2, g_irow2, _irow2 and row2</code>. For transitions
defined as part of the <code class="code">internal_transition_table</code>, you can use
the <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch03s02.html#internal-transitions">a_internal, g_internal,
_internal, internal</a></strong></span> row types from the previous
sections.</p><p>These row types allow us to distribute the state machine code among
states, making them reusable and more useful. Using transition tables inside
states also contributes to this possibility. An <a class="link" href="examples/SimpleTutorial2.cpp" target="_top">example</a> of these new
rows is also provided.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Explicit entry / entry and exit pseudo-state / fork"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1558"></a>Explicit entry / entry and exit pseudo-state / fork</h3></div></div></div><p>MSM (almost) fully supports these features, described in the <span class="command"><strong><a class="command" href="ch02s02.html#uml-history">small UML tutorial</a></strong></span>. Almost because
there are currently two limitations: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>it is only possible to explicitly enter a sub- state of the
target but not a sub-sub state.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>it is not possible to explicitly exit. Exit points must be
used.</p></li></ul></div><p>Let us see a concrete example:</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/entrytutorial.jpg" width="60%"></span></p><p>We find in this diagram:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>A “normal” activation of SubFsm2, triggered by event1. In each
region, the initial state is activated, i.e. SubState1 and
SubState1b.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>An explicit entry into SubFsm2::SubState2 for region “1” with
event2 as trigger, meaning that in region “2” the initial state,
SubState1b, activated.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>A fork into regions “1” and “2” to the explicit entries
SubState2 and SubState2b, triggered by event3. Both states
become active so no region is default activated (if we had a
third one, it would be).</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>A connection of two transitions through an entry pseudo state,
SubFsm2::PseudoEntry1, triggered by event4 and triggering also
the second transition on the same event (both transitions must
be triggered by the same event). Region “2” is default-activated
and SubState1b becomes active.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>An exit from SubFsm2 using an exit pseudo-state, PseudoExit1,
triggered by event5 and connecting two transitions using the
same event. Again, the event is forwarded to the second
transition and both regions are exited, as SubFsm2 becomes
inactive. Note that if no transition is defined from
PseudoExit1, an error (as defined in the UML standard) will be
detected and no_transition called.</p></li></ul></div><p>The example is also <a class="link" href="examples/DirectEntryTutorial.cpp" target="_top">fully implemented</a>.</p><p>This sounds complicated but the syntax is simple.</p><div class="sect3" title="Explicit entry"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="d0e1604"></a>Explicit entry</h4></div></div></div><p>First, to define that a state is an explicit entry, you have to make
it a state and mark it as explicit, giving as template parameters the
region id (the region id starts with 0 and corresponds to the first
initial state of the initial_state type sequence).</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct SubFsm2_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<SubFsm2_>
{
struct SubState2 : public msm::front::state<> ,
public msm::front::explicit_entry<0>
{...};
...
};</pre><p>
</p><p>And define the submachine as:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef msm::back::state_machine<SubFsm2_> SubFsm2;</pre><p>
</p><p>You can then use it as target in a transition with State1 as
source:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < State1, Event2, SubFsm2::direct< SubFsm2_::SubState2> > //SubFsm2_::SubState2: complete name of SubState2 (defined within SubFsm2_)</pre><p>
</p><p>The syntax deserves some explanation. SubFsm2_ is a front end.
SubState2 is a nested state, therefore the SubFsm2_::SubState2 syntax.
The containing machine (containing State1 and SubFsm2) refers to the
backend instance (SubFsm2). SubFsm2::direct states that an explicit
entry is desired.</p><p><span class="underline">Note (also valid for forks)</span>: in
order to make compile time more bearable for the more standard cases,
and unlike initial states, explicit entry states which are also not
found in the transition table of the entered submachine (a rare case) do
NOT get automatically created. To explicitly create such states, you
need to add in the state machine containing the explicit states a simple
typedef giving a sequence of states to be explicitly created
like:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef mpl::vector<SubState2,SubState2b> explicit_creation;</pre><p>
</p><p><span class="underline">Note (also valid for forks)</span>: At
the moment, it is not possible to use a submachine as the target of an
explicit entry. Please use entry pseudo states for an almost identical
effect.</p></div><div class="sect3" title="Fork"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="d0e1643"></a>Fork</h4></div></div></div><p>Need a fork instead of an explicit entry? As a fork is an explicit
entry into states of different regions, we do not change the state
definition compared to the explicit entry and specify as target a list
of explicit entry states:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < State1, Event3,
mpl::vector<SubFsm2::direct<SubFsm2_::SubState2>,
SubFsm2::direct <SubFsm2_::SubState2b>
></pre><p>
</p><p>With SubState2 defined as before and SubState2b defined as being in
the second region (Caution: MSM does not check that the region is
correct):</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct SubState2b : public msm::front::state<> ,
public msm::front::explicit_entry<1></pre><p>
</p></div><div class="sect3" title="Entry pseudo states"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="d0e1660"></a>Entry pseudo states</h4></div></div></div><p> To define an entry pseudo state, you need derive from the
corresponding class and give the region id:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct PseudoEntry1 : public msm::front::entry_pseudo_state<0></pre><p>
</p><p>And add the corresponding transition in the top-level state machine's
transition table:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < State1, Event4, SubFsm2::entry_pt<SubFsm2_::PseudoEntry1> ></pre><p>
</p><p>And another in the SubFsm2_ submachine definition (remember that UML
defines an entry point as a connection between two transitions), for
example this time with an action method:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < PseudoEntry1, Event4, SubState3,&SubFsm2_::entry_action ></pre><p>
</p></div><div class="sect3" title="Exit pseudo states"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="d0e1684"></a> Exit pseudo states </h4></div></div></div><p>And finally, exit pseudo states are to be used almost the same way,
but defined differently: it takes as template argument the event to be
forwarded (no region id is necessary):</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct PseudoExit1 : public exit_pseudo_state<event6></pre><p>
</p><p>And you need, like for entry pseudo states, two transitions, one in
the submachine:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < SubState3, Event5, PseudoExit1 ></pre><p>
</p><p>And one in the containing state machine:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">_row < SubFsm2::exit_pt<SubFsm2_::PseudoExit1>, Event6,State2 ></pre><p>
</p><p><span class="underline">Important note 1:</span> UML defines
transiting to an entry pseudo state and having either no second
transition or one with a guard as an error but defines no error
handling. MSM will tolerate this behavior; the entry pseudo state will
simply be the newly active state.</p><p><span class="underline">Important note 2</span>: UML defines
transiting to an exit pseudo state and having no second transition as an
error, and also defines no error handling. Therefore, it was decided to
implement exit pseudo state as terminate states and the containing
composite not properly exited will stay terminated as it was technically
“exited”.</p><p><span class="underline">Important note 3:</span> UML states
that for the exit point, the same event must be used in both
transitions. MSM relaxes this rule and only wants the event on the
inside transition to be convertible to the one of the outside
transition. In our case, event6 is convertible from event5. Notice that
the forwarded event must be named in the exit point definition. For
example, we could define event6 as simply as:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">struct event6
{
event6(){}
template <class Event>
event6(Event const&){}
}; //convertible from any event</pre><p>
</p></div></div><div class="sect2" title="Flags"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1725"></a>Flags</h3></div></div></div><p>This <a class="link" href="examples/Flags.cpp" target="_top">tutorial</a> is devoted to a
concept not defined in UML: flags. It has been added into MSM after proving
itself useful on many occasions. Please, do not be frightened as we are not
talking about ugly shortcuts made of an improbable collusion of
Booleans.</p><p>If you look into the Boost.Statechart documentation you'll find this
code:</p><pre class="programlisting">if ( ( state_downcast< const NumLockOff * >() != 0 ) &&
( state_downcast< const CapsLockOff * >() != 0 ) &&
( state_downcast< const ScrollLockOff * >() != 0 ) )
</pre><p>While correct and found in many UML books, this can be error-prone and a
potential time-bomb when your state machine grows and you add new states or
orthogonal regions.</p><p>And most of all, it hides the real question, which would be “does my state
machine's current state define a special property”? In this special case
“are my keys in a lock state”? So let's apply the Fundamental Theorem of
Software Engineering and move one level of abstraction higher.</p><p>In our player example, let's say we need to know if the player has a
loaded CD. We could do the same:</p><pre class="programlisting">if ( ( state_downcast< const Stopped * >() != 0 ) &&
( state_downcast< const Open * >() != 0 ) &&
( state_downcast< const Paused * >() != 0 ) &&
( state_downcast< const Playing * >() != 0 )) </pre><p>Or flag these 4 states as CDLoaded-able. You add a flag_list type into
each flagged state:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef mpl::vector1<CDLoaded> flag_list;</pre><p>
</p><p>You can even define a list of flags, for example in Playing:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">typedef mpl::vector2<PlayingPaused,CDLoaded> flag_list;</pre><p>
</p><p>This means that Playing supports both properties. To check if your player
has a loaded CD, check if your flag is active in the current state:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">player p; if (p.is_flag_active<CDLoaded>()) ... </pre><p>
</p><p>And what if you have orthogonal regions? How to decide if a state machine
is in a flagged state? By default, you keep the same code and the current
states will be OR'ed, meaning if one of the active states has the flag, then
is_flag_active returns true. Of course, in some cases, you might want that
all of the active states are flagged for the state to be active. You can
also AND the active states:</p><p>
</p><pre class="programlisting">if (p.is_flag_active<CDLoaded,player::Flag_AND>()) ...</pre><p>
</p><p>The following diagram displays the flag situation in the tutorial.</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/FlagsTutorial.jpg" width="60%"></span></p></div><div class="sect2" title="Event Hierarchy"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1779"></a><span class="command"><strong><a name="event-hierarchy"></a></strong></span>Event Hierarchy</h3></div></div></div><p>There are cases where one needs transitions based on categories of events.
An example is text parsing. Let's say you want to parse a string and use a
state machine to manage your parsing state. You want to parse 4 digits and
decide to use a state for every matched digit. Your state machine could look
like:</p><p><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/ParsingDigits.jpg" width="30%"></span></p><p>But how to detect the digit event? We would like to avoid defining 10
transitions on char_0, char_1... between two states as it would force us to
write 4 x 10 transitions and the compile-time would suffer. To solve this
problem, MSM supports the triggering of a transition on a subclass event.
For example, if we define digits as: </p><pre class="programlisting">struct digit {};
struct char_0 : public digit {}; </pre><p>And to the same for other digits, we can now fire char_0, char_1 events
and this will cause a transition with "digit" as trigger to be taken.</p><p>An <a class="link" href="examples/ParsingDigits.cpp" target="_top">example</a> with
performance measurement, taken from the documentation of Boost.Xpressive
illustrates this example. You might notice that the performance is actually
very good (in this case even better).</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Customizing a state machine / Getting more speed"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1800"></a>Customizing a state machine / Getting more speed</h3></div></div></div><p>MSM is offering many UML features at a high-speed, but sometimes, you just
need more speed and are ready to give up some features in exchange. A
process_event is handling several tasks: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>checking for terminate/interrupt states</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>handling the message queue (for entry/exit/transition actions
generating themselves events)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>handling deferred events</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>catching exceptions (or not)</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>handling the state switching and action calls</p></li></ul></div><p>Of these tasks, only the last one is absolutely necessary to
a state machine (its core job), the other ones are nice-to-haves which cost
CPU time. In many cases, it is not so important, but in embedded systems,
this can lead to ad-hoc state machine implementations. MSM detects by itself
if a concrete state machine makes use of terminate/interrupt states and
deferred events and deactivates them if not used. For the other two, if you
do not need them, you need to help by indicating it in your implementation.
This is done with two simple typedefs:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">no_exception_thrown</code> indicates that behaviors will
never throw and MSM does not need to catch anything</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="code">no_message_queue</code> indicates that no action will
itself generate a new event and MSM can save us the message
queue.</p></li></ul></div><p>The third configuration possibility, explained <a class="link" href="ch03s02.html#basic-defer">here</a>, is to manually activate deferred
events, using <code class="code">activate_deferred_events</code>. For example, the
following state machine sets all three configuration types:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct player_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<player_>
{
// no need for exception handling or message queue
typedef int no_exception_thrown;
typedef int no_message_queue;
// also manually enable deferred events
typedef int activate_deferred_events
...// rest of implementation
};</pre><p><span class="underline">Important note</span>: As exit pseudo
states are using the message queue to forward events out of a submachine,
the <code class="code">no_message_queue</code> option cannot be used with state machines
containing an exit pseudo state.</p></div><div class="sect2" title="Choosing the initial event"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1849"></a>Choosing the initial event</h3></div></div></div><p>A state machine is started using the <code class="code">start</code> method. This
causes the initial state's entry behavior to be executed. Like every entry
behavior, it becomes as parameter the event causing the state to be entered.
But when the machine starts, there was no event triggered. In this case, MSM
sends <code class="code">msm::back::state_machine<...>::InitEvent</code>, which might
not be the default you'd want. For this special case, MSM provides a
configuration mechanism in the form of a typedef. If the state machine's
front-end definition provides an initial_event typedef set to another event,
this event will be used. For example:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct my_initial_event{};
struct player_ : public msm::front::state_machine_def<player_>{
...
typedef my_initial_event initial_event;
};</pre></div><div class="sect2" title="Containing state machine (deprecated)"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="d0e1862"></a> Containing state machine (deprecated)</h3></div></div></div><p>This feature is still supported in MSM for backward compatibility but made
obsolete by the fact that every guard/action/entry action/exit action get
the state machine passed as argument and might be removed at a later
time.</p><p>All of the states defined in the state machine are created upon state
machine construction. This has the huge advantage of a reduced syntactic
noise. The cost is a small loss of control for the user on the state
creation and access. But sometimes you needed a way for a state to get
access to its containing state machine. Basically, a state needs to change
its declaration to:</p><pre class="programlisting">struct Stopped : public msm::front::state<sm_ptr></pre><p>And to provide a set_sm_ptr function: <code class="code">void set_sm_ptr(player*
pl)</code></p><p>to get a pointer to the containing state machine. The same applies to
terminate_state / interrupt_state and entry_pseudo_state /
exit_pseudo_state. </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="ch03.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="ch03.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ch03s03.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 3. Tutorial </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Functor front-end</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
