Developing A Once-Only Initialised Class

Environment: Visual C++ Version 6

Often, we need a once-only initialised class that is global to the entire system. Examples of such a class would be the loading of a library, or options from the Registry.

This is a base class which provides (a) an initialisation, only if the class is used and (b) ensures a once-only instance for the application.

template <class CLASS>
class CStaticClass
{
public:
  virtual ~CStaticClass() { };
  static CLASS &Get()
  {
    static CLASS m_theObject;
    m_theObject.Initialise();
    return m_theObject;
  }
  void Initialise()
  {
    if (!m_fInitialised)
    {
      OnInitialise();
      m_fInitialised = TRUE;
    }
  }
protected:
  CStaticClass()
  {
    m_fInitialised = FALSE;
  }
  virtual void OnInitialise() = 0;
private:
  BOOL m_fInitialised;
} ;

An example of use would be for loading a library:

class CMyLibrary : public CStaticClass<CMyLibrary>
{
public:
  CMyLibrary()
  {
    m_hLibrary = NULL;
    m_pfnFunction = NULL;
  }
  virtual ~CMyLibrary()
  {
    if (m_hLibrary != NULL)
    {
      ::FreeLibrary(m_hLibrary);
    }
  }
  void DoFunction()
  {
    if (m_pfnFunction != NULL)
    {
      m_pfnFunction();
    }
    else
    {
      ASSERT(FALSE);
    }
  }
protected:
  virtual void OnInitialise()
  {
    m_hLibrary = ::LoadLibrary(“mylibrary.dll”);
    if (m_hLibrary != NULL)
    {
      m_pfnFunction = ::GetProcAddress(m_hLibrary, “MyProc”);
    }
  }
private:
  HMODULE m_hLibrary;
  FARPROC m_pfnFunction;
} ;

So, to call the designated function, use this line of code:

  CMyLibrary::Get().DoFunction();