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Monad for Composing UI Elements
f# monad
Just ran across this article by Adam Granicz on composing UI in F# using computation expressions (monads). Very cool and very clean way to add controls to Forms, etc. Much better than adding an array of items cast to Control!

Not sure if this is linked anywhere else on hubFS, but IMHO really worth the double post!
.

This looks interesting. In converting this to work with WPF I ran into a couple of bumps. Obviously WPF doesn't have a single pattern of composition, so the abstract class is less useful. But a more worrying problem arrived when I tried to add do! to the computation expression builder. This code works fine:

open System.Windows
open System.Windows.Controls

 
[<AbstractClass>]
type IComposableControl<'a> when 'a :> FrameworkElement () =
    abstract Control : 'a
    abstract Bind : FrameworkElement * (FrameworkElement -> 'a) -> 'a
    member this.Return (e: unit)  = this.Control
    member this.Zero () = this.Control


type WindowBuilder() =
    // Using type inference IComposableControl<_> causes Error: anonymous type variables are not permitted in this declaration.
    inherit IComposableControl<Window>() 

    let win = Window(Topmost=true)
    override this.Control = win
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body) =
        win.Content <- c
        body c


type PanelBuilder(panel: Panel) =
    inherit IComposableControl()
    override this.Control = panel
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body) =
        panel.Children.Add(c) |> ignore
        body c


let win =
    WindowBuilder() 
        {   let! panel = 
                PanelBuilder(StackPanel())
                    {   let! btn1 = Button(Content = "Hello")
                        let! btn2 = Button(Content = "World")
                        return () }
            return () }


win.Show() // Pops up the window in FSI.

In trying to add do! I get an overload error:

[<AbstractClass>]
type IComposableControl<'a> when 'a :> FrameworkElement () =
    abstract Control : 'a
    [<OverloadID("1")>]
    abstract Bind : FrameworkElement * (FrameworkElement -> 'a) -> 'a
    [<OverloadID("2")>]
    abstract Bind : FrameworkElement * (unit -> 'a) -> 'a
    member this.Return (e: unit)  = this.Control
    member this.Zero () = this.Control

Error: The method 'Bind' is overloaded. Possible matches are shown below (or in the Error List window)

It seems that the type inference can't figure out which Bind method to use. I also noticed that there were no warnings generated when I used incorrect OverloadIDs on the derived builders.

I could not seem to resolve this error. Am I getting the syntax wrong here? Otherwise a verification would be useful.

thanks,

Danny
By on 6/30/2009 4:24 AM ()
Hi Danny:

I'm floundering too. Not very familiar with type constraints, especially when combined with computation builders and abstract classes. Not too sure about how you expect to bind things with (unit -> 'a), so I changed it to (IComposableControl->'b), in keeping with the original. Here's what I came up with, but it generates a couple of internal compiler errors (see below):

#r "WindowsBase.dll"
#r "PresentationCore.dll"
#r "PresentationFramework.dll"

open System.Windows
open System.Windows.Controls
 
[<AbstractClass>]
type IComposableControl<'a> when 'a :> FrameworkElement () =
    abstract Control : 'a
    [<OverloadID("1")>]
    abstract Bind : FrameworkElement * (FrameworkElement -> 'a) -> 'a
    [<OverloadID("2")>]
    abstract Bind : IComposableControl<'b> * (FrameworkElement -> 'a)  -> 'a 
    member this.Return (e: unit)  = this.Control
    member this.Zero () = this.Control

type WindowBuilder() =
    inherit IComposableControl<Window>() 
    let win = Window(Topmost=true)
    override this.Control = win
    [<OverloadID("1")>]
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body) =
        win.Content <- c
        body c
    [<OverloadID("2")>]
    override this.Bind(c: IComposableControl<'b>, body) : Window =
        win.Content <- c.Control
        body c.Control

type PanelBuilder(panel: Panel) =
    inherit IComposableControl()
    override this.Control = panel
    [<OverloadID("1")>]
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body) =
        panel.Children.Add(c) |> ignore
        body c
    [<OverloadID("2")>]
    override this.Bind(c: IComposableControl<'b>, body) : Panel =
        panel.Children.Add(c.Control) |> ignore
        body c.Control

let win =
    WindowBuilder() 
        {   let! panel = 
                PanelBuilder(StackPanel())
                    {   let! btn1 = Button(Content = "Hello")
                        let! btn2 = Button(Content = "World")
                        return () }
            return () }

win.Show() // Pops up the window in FSI.

And the errors:

Error 1 internal error: dest_typar_typ: not a typar type (Failure) Please build a small example that reproduces this problem and report it to fsbugs@microsoft.com. script2.fsx 31 6 Miscellaneous Files
Error 2 internal error: dest_typar_typ: not a typar type Please build a small example that reproduces this problem and report it to fsbugs@microsoft.com. script2.fsx 1 1 Miscellaneous Files

By on 6/30/2009 9:10 AM ()
Brian @ fsbugs replies with the following. Tested as working. Thanks Brian!

Thanks for the report; the internal error has been fixed in our internal development bits, and I expect the code below may work on Beta1 (haven’t tried it there). The main change I made is just being more explicit in the type signatures. 

#if INTERACTIVE
#r "WindowsBase.dll"
#r "PresentationCore.dll"
#r "PresentationFramework.dll"
#r "System.Xaml"
#endif

open System
open System.Windows
open System.Windows.Controls

[<AbstractClass>]
type IComposableControl<'a when 'a :> FrameworkElement> () =
    abstract Control : 'a
    abstract Bind : FrameworkElement * (FrameworkElement -> 'a) -> 'a
    abstract Bind : IComposableControl<'b> * (FrameworkElement -> 'a)  -> 'a 
    member this.Return (e: unit)  = this.Control
    member this.Zero () = this.Control

type WindowBuilder() =
    inherit IComposableControl<Window>() 
    let win = Window(Topmost=true)
    override this.Control = win
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body: FrameworkElement -> Window) : Window =
        win.Content <- c
        body c
    override this.Bind(c: IComposableControl<'b>, body: FrameworkElement -> Window) : Window =
        win.Content <- c.Control
        body c.Control

type PanelBuilder(panel: Panel) =
    inherit IComposableControl()
    override this.Control = panel
    override this.Bind(c: FrameworkElement, body: FrameworkElement -> Panel) : Panel=
        panel.Children.Add(c) |> ignore
        body c
    override this.Bind(c: IComposableControl<'b>, body: FrameworkElement -> Panel) : Panel=
        panel.Children.Add(c.Control) |> ignore
        body c.Control


let win =
    WindowBuilder() 
        {   let! panel = 
                PanelBuilder(StackPanel())
                    {   let! btn1 = Button(Content = "Hello")
                        let! btn2 = Button(Content = "World")
                        return () }
            return () }

win.Show() // Pops up the window in FSI.

#if COMPILED
[<STAThread()>]
do 
    let app =  new Application() in
    app.Run() |> ignore
#endif


By on 7/1/2009 8:08 AM ()

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