Core Framework · Chapters 1–9

mdi

The core MDI framework: application and desktop management, views, drawable items, toolbars, plotting, mapping, simulation, and optimization.

github.com/heddle/mdi

What It Covers

Chapter	Topic	Key classes
1	Architecture overview	Application → Desktop → View → Container → Layer → Item
2	Creating the application	`BaseMDIApplication`
3	Creating views	`BaseView`
4	Drawable items	`AItem`, `PointItem`, `LineItem`, `PolygonItem`, `PolylineItem`, `RectangleItem`, `EllipseItem`, `RadArcItem`, `TextItem`, `ImageItem`, `ConnectorItem`
5	Toolbars and rubberbanding	`AToolBar`, `BaseToolBar`, `ToolBits`, `IToolHandler`, `GestureContext`
6	Plotting (sPlot)	`PlotView`, `PlotPanel`, `PlotCanvas`, `PlotToolHandler`, `ACurve`, `XYPlotBuilder`, `PlotDeck`
7	Mapping	`MapView2D`, `MapContainer`, `IMapProjection`, `ShapefileLayer`, `MapLayerStyle`
8	Simulation	`Simulation`, `SimulationEngine`, `SimulationContext`
9	Optimization	simulated annealing and genetic-algorithm demos, built as specialized simulations

Gallery

Figures from the Optimization chapter (9), showing the simulated-annealing and genetic-algorithm demos in action.

Diagram contrasting simulated annealing and genetic algorithms — Simulated annealing vs. genetic algorithms: a single evolving candidate vs. a population evolving through selection, crossover, and mutation.

TSP demo view before and after simulated annealing — `TspDemoView` before and after simulated annealing — a tangled initial tour converges to a near-optimal one as temperature cools.

Energy vs. temperature plot for the TSP demo — Energy vs. temperature for the TSP run, plotted live with the sPlot package.

Genetic algorithm generation pipeline diagram — One `Simulation.step()` as a GA generation: selection → crossover → mutation → evaluation → replacement.

Image evolution demo approximating a target image with triangles — `ImageEvolutionDemoView` evolving a population of triangle-based images toward a target, with best/mean error tracked per generation.

Try It

git clone https://github.com/heddle/mdi.git
cd mdi
mvn install
mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=edu.cnu.mdi.app.DemoApp

DemoApp opens a virtual desktop preloaded with a drawing view, a map view, a plot view, and several simulation/optimization demos (network decluttering, traveling-salesperson simulated annealing, image evolution via a genetic algorithm, and a geometry-slice view) — a useful first stop before reading the chapters in detail.

Maven Coordinates

Released versions are published on Maven Central under io.github.heddle.

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.github.heddle</groupId>
    <artifactId>mdi</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.3</version>
</dependency>

Check Maven Central for the artifact listing. The book release is v1.2.3.

API Documentation

Full Javadoc is available here.