wxXmlNode::GetAttribute's pointer argument must not be NULL, check for it

[wxWidgets.git] / docs / todo30.txt

Enhancements for wxWidgets 3.0
==============================

This table contains the brief summary of the issues below. Priority and
Difficulty are values from 1 to 10 with 1 being the least important/difficult
and 10 the most.

Item                                                            Prio    Diff
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Namespaces                                                        8      6
STLization                                                       10      8
Making code exception-friendly                                    8      10
Native RTTI                                                       7      7
TRUE/true                                                         9      1


C++ Features
============

- Namespaces:
    We want to have all wxWidgets identifiers in "wx" namespace but provide
    typedefs/#defines for backwards compatibility. This can be done easily
    for the classes and the only real problem are the enums as they would
    all have to be duplicated at both the global scope (with "wx" prefix) and
    in wx namespace (without it)

- STLization
    This involves providing optional wxString implementation using std::string
    and doing the same for all our containers with the exception of wxHashMap
    which should simply be rewritten using templates (but keeping the old
    version for backwards compatibility -- ideally wx 3.0 would still be usable
    without templates, even if not all of its features would be available then)

- Exceptions
    We are not going to use exceptions in wxWidgets itself but our code should
    become exception safe. This is a very difficult task as it means that no
    resource allocations (including memory, files, whatever) should be done
    without using a smart pointer-like object to store the result as it is the
    only way to prevent resource leaks in presence of exceptions

- Real RTTI
    Optionally use the real RTTI instead of wx emulation of it. Keep the
    current stuff for backwards compatibility.

- Complete replacing TRUE/FALSE with true/false
    Trivial


Core
====

- use wxEventLoop in all builds
    wxApp and wxDialog should use wxEventLoop objects (the exact class can be
    customized by user code by overriding some wxApp::CreateEventLoop())
    instead of duplicating the same code

- remove wxCOMPATIBILITY
    wxDEPRECATED() should be used with everything inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_4.
    The stuff inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_6 probably should not be deprecated
    (yet?) because this would give thousands of warnings for the existing code.
    Exception is api documented as obsolete in 2.6 release already.

- Modularization/Build System
    Candidates for components:
        +   contrib widgets (and maybe some of the ones currently in the core)
        +   wxHTML
        +   network stuff
        +   printing (?)
        +   ODBC classes
        +   ...

- Project File Generation
    We need a (GUI) tool to generate the project/makefiles for all supported
    platforms/compilers. Not sure if it should be used for the library itself
    (would be nice to have something like "make menuconfig" for Linux kernel
     which allows you to navigate easily among all of the configure/setup.h
     options but there is a problem with distributing such tool as it can't be
     compiled by the user because it is needed before the library is built) but
    we definitely need it for the users makefiles.

- Properties/Member-Metadata, 2-Step Init with virtual create

- Tidy code and add comments to headers (possibly in
  Doxygen/Javadoc style)


Documentation
=============

- The possibility of moving doc into header files with tool
  support.
- Detailed review of doc accuracy.
- wxDC : Precise definition of default/initial state. 
- wxDC : Pixelwise definition of operations (e.g. last point of a
  line not drawn).
- Events:
    For all controls state clearly when calling a member function results in an
    event being generated and when it doesn't.
- Update the coding standards guide


wxEvents
========

- Change Idle Handling
    Current Implementation is using too many CPU cycles

- Loose Coupling Event-Source Event-Sink
    kind of the NextStep/C# very performant coupling, exposing events via
    Metadata

- Add Lazy Init of Eventtables


Modules/Plugins
===============

Architecture
------------

We aim to arrive at a lazy initialization of modules only when they are first 
needed. Dependency information between modules is needed. Dynamic Plug-In
loading and unloading must be compatible with that.


wxUniversal
===========

- Renderers within native ports.


wxPrinting
==========

- Page preflighting capabilities in order to determine number
  of pages.
- Preview UI enhancement.


wxStaticBox
===========

Hide the platform problems (GTK: 'children' must be siblings) in encapsulation 
in order to avoid problems on ports where the hierarchy must be
'correct'.


Removal of old code
===================

In addition to wxCOMPATIBILITY code:

- contrib/src/mmedia
- contrib/src/applet?
- Dialog Editor

wxMiscellaneous
===============

- wxDC Support for point to char-position with text rendering
- wxLocale Extension (eg Currency)
- wxStreams review
- wxURL?
- a way to tell wxWidgets to check for any non-portable usage,
  for a given set of platforms. Sometimes you want to be able
  to get away with non-portable usage, and sometimes not.
  This is probably way too time-consuming to implement.
- In headers, don't silently omit contents if the features for this
  header is switched off. Instead, emit an error message.
- Implement native tree view and colour dialog in wxGTK.
- Better way to specify About, Preferences menu ids under wxMac.
- Must be able to portably specify relaying out a frame after the toolbar
  has been destroyed or recreated. On wxMSW, this is done in
  ~wxToolBar. On wxGTK, in SetToolBar. In wxMac, not at all,
  but sending a wxSizeEvent will do it.
- Need wxRect wxToolBar::GetToolRect(int id) or similar so we can
  align a popup menu with a toolbar button.
- wxMac font selector dialog is the generic font selector -
  horrible.
- No Append(wxArrayString&) for wxChoice and wxComboBox in wxGTK.
  Probably other functions too. Consider adding Insert to
  these classes, as per the patch on SF.
- Rewrite wxFileHistory using wxString and wxArrayString, and
  put in separate file.
- Add wxArrayString methods to wxTextValidator and any other
  class that needs them.
- Add wxNotebook::GetTabRect or similar so we can estimate
  page size better in wxNotebookBase::CalcSizeFromPage.
- Add function to clear all wxNotebook tabs without
  destroying the pages.
- Add individual setters to wxScrollBar and other classes
  that use a combined setter.
- Remove traces of old resource system from wxWizard.
- Have wxDirCtrl as alias for wxGenericDirCtrl.
- Allow instant reaction to left-up in a wxGrid cell
  (extend editor API) to work around bad checkbox
  behaviour (click, click, click, click away...) and
  reduce checkbox size on non-Windows platforms.
- Add wxNotebook::HitTest for non-Windows platforms.
- Implement rebar for all platforms. This will help us
  get closer to native look and feel, e.g. the gradient
  shadow on XP toolbars.

Version:      $Id$