Last fixes for wxMotif and configure

[wxWidgets.git] / docs / motif / todo.txt

wxMotif TODO
------------

Updated: 9/11/98

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General comment: see the following site for useful Motif widgets.
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/widgets/motif

Also, grep for TODO comments in source.

High Priority
-------------

- Work out why XFreeFont in font.cpp produces a segv. This is
  currently commented out, which presumably causes a memory leak.

- Colour setting in widgets (almost done). Should scrollbars take
  on the background colour? Not right for e.g. wxScrolledWindows,
  so maybe have wxSystemSettings value for scrollbar colour, and/or
  ability to set scrollbar colour independently.

- Make wxDialog OnPaint work.

- Optimize wxWindow OnPaint, clipping the damaged
  region.

- Implementation of OnEraseBackground. How? Call OnEraseBackground
  just before OnPaint? Will duplicate Xlib's own erase of the background.
  However, this is usually OK, because the default wxWindow::OnEraseBackground
  can do nothing (SetBackgroundColour will make the background look OK).
  And if a custom OnEraseBackground uses the same colour as the window
  background, no flicker will be seen. If it does something else, such as
  painting a tiled bitmap, then a slight flicker might be seen unless
  X can be persuaded not to repaint the window background by default.

- wxSpinButton

- Tidy dialogs such as the colour and font selectors.

- Use generic wxTreeCtrl, wxListCtrl: debug and enhance these.

- Find out why modal dialogs give a grab warning.

- wxSystemSettings. Eventually, should have control panel-like utility
  to change colours/fonts but meanwhile should maybe read them
  from a file.

- wxThread (hopefully, similar to wxGTK)

- wxAcceleratorTable.

- Miscellaneous events.

- Write makefiles for all samples and utilities.

- Create some samples for testing.

Low Priority
------------

- Better makefile system that can put objects in different dirs.
  Use wxGTK config system? It's really complex to debug and
  doesn't offer a way of compiling apps outside the wxWin
  hierarchy.

- Extra wxBitmap formats: PNG, BMP. Could use old wxWin 1.68
  wxImage code (derived from XV) for BMP/GIF but it's very bloated. However,
  when implemented as extra bitmap handlers, the code won't be linked
  unless needed.

- Print/preview framework in print.cpp (see wxGTK).

- Enhance event handling such that you override e.g. left-click
  and unless you call the base OnMouseEvent, the click won't be
  sent to the button. Required for Dialog Editor.

- Get Dialog Editor working under Motif.

- New wxHelp version: try using the XmHTML widget at
  http://www.xs4all.nl/~ripley/XmHTML/.

  We need to:
  - make a minimal distribution under wx/src/xmhtml, just enough
    to compile the source.
  - add XMHTML_C_SRC to src/motif/makefile.unx with the source files
    listed.
  - make sure we can compile the sources, passing the correct
    flags for zlib/png compilation.
  - make a wxHTMLWindow class from e.g. examples/example_2.c. Should
    probably make the cache and history facilities part of the class.
  - add the driver code to src/motif/helphtml.cpp (a frame, toolbar,
    history list).

  Note that a quicker route to a help system may be to use the
  code in the contrib dir of XmHTML to control a Netscape session --
  but Netscape can be a colour resource hog.

- Optimize screen refresh for non-native widgets, e.g. wxWindow
  created with Create(), using technique in flicker patch for 1.68
  (see JACS for latest patch).

- Copy and paste, drag and drop. Use a standard X drag
  and drop standard - see http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~jafl/xdnd/
  or use Motif drag and drop as described here:
  http://www.motifzone.com/tmd/articles/DnD/dnd.html

- Optimize colour management so we don't get clashes when e.g.
  Netscape is running. See:
  http://www.motifzone.com/tmd/articles/John_Cwikla/index.html

- wxRCConfig (a config class using X .rc files). Could simply
  implement it in terms of current wxGet/WriteResource functions.

- wxCheckBoxList

- wxBitmapCheckBox, wxBitmapRadioButton

- Reimplement combobox using Lesstif's widget (avoiding GPL'ed
  widget currently used).

- Write generic wxDirDialog (directory selector)

- Use native Motif dialogs for wxMessageBox

- Miscellaneous classes e.g. wxJoystick (identical to GTK's one for
  Linux)

- Blit scaling

- Could eventually alter the MDI widgets to be more Windows-like
  -- currently it's half-hearted (menus are on children, whereas
  they should replace the main parent frame menu).

- Get ODBC classes and sample working.