docs/todo30.txt

   1 Enhancements for wxWidgets 3.0
   2 ==============================
   3
   4 This table contains the brief summary of the issues below. Priority and
   5 Difficulty are values from 1 to 10 with 1 being the least important/difficult
   6 and 10 the most.
   7
   8 Item                                                            Prio    Diff
   9 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  10 Namespaces                                                        8      6
  11 STLization                                                       10      8
  12 Making code exception-friendly                                    8      10
  13 Native RTTI                                                       7      7
  14 TRUE/true                                                         9      1
  15
  16
  17 C++ Features
  18 ============
  19
  20 - Namespaces:
  21     We want to have all wxWidgets identifiers in "wx" namespace but provide
  22     typedefs/#defines for backwards compatibility. This can be done easily
  23     for the classes and the only real problem are the enums as they would
  24     all have to be duplicated at both the global scope (with "wx" prefix) and
  25     in wx namespace (without it)
  26
  27 - STLization
  28     This involves providing optional wxString implementation using std::string
  29     and doing the same for all our containers with the exception of wxHashMap
  30     which should simply be rewritten using templates (but keeping the old
  31     version for backwards compatibility -- ideally wx 3.0 would still be usable
  32     without templates, even if not all of its features would be available then)
  33
  34 - Exceptions
  35     We are not going to use exceptions in wxWidgets itself but our code should
  36     become exception safe. This is a very difficult task as it means that no
  37     resource allocations (including memory, files, whatever) should be done
  38     without using a smart pointer-like object to store the result as it is the
  39     only way to prevent resource leaks in presence of exceptions
  40
  41 - Real RTTI
  42     Optionally use the real RTTI instead of wx emulation of it. Keep the
  43     current stuff for backwards compatibility.
  44
  45 - Complete replacing TRUE/FALSE with true/false
  46     Trivial
  47
  48
  49 Core
  50 ====
  51
  52 - use wxEventLoop in all builds
  53     wxApp and wxDialog should use wxEventLoop objects (the exact class can be
  54     customized by user code by overriding some wxApp::CreateEventLoop())
  55     instead of duplicating the same code
  56
  57 - remove wxCOMPATIBILITY
  58     wxDEPRECATED() should be used with everything inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_4.
  59     The stuff inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_6 probably should not be deprecated
  60     (yet?) because this would give thousands of warnings for the existing code.
  61     Exception is api documented as obsolete in 2.6 release already.
  62
  63 - Modularization/Build System
  64     Candidates for components:
  65         +   contrib widgets (and maybe some of the ones currently in the core)
  66         +   wxHTML
  67         +   network stuff
  68         +   printing (?)
  69         +   ODBC classes
  70         +   ...
  71
  72 - Project File Generation
  73     We need a (GUI) tool to generate the project/makefiles for all supported
  74     platforms/compilers. Not sure if it should be used for the library itself
  75     (would be nice to have something like "make menuconfig" for Linux kernel
  76      which allows you to navigate easily among all of the configure/setup.h
  77      options but there is a problem with distributing such tool as it can't be
  78      compiled by the user because it is needed before the library is built) but
  79     we definitely need it for the users makefiles.
  80
  81 - Properties/Member-Metadata, 2-Step Init with virtual create
  82
  83 - Tidy code and add comments to headers (possibly in
  84   Doxygen/Javadoc style)
  85
  86
  87 Documentation
  88 =============
  89
  90 - The possibility of moving doc into header files with tool
  91   support.
  92 - Detailed review of doc accuracy.
  93 - wxDC : Precise definition of default/initial state.
  94 - wxDC : Pixelwise definition of operations (e.g. last point of a
  95   line not drawn).
  96 - Events:
  97     For all controls state clearly when calling a member function results in an
  98     event being generated and when it doesn't.
  99 - Update the coding standards guide
 100
 101
 102 wxEvents
 103 ========
 104
 105 - Change Idle Handling
 106     Current Implementation is using too many CPU cycles
 107
 108 - Loose Coupling Event-Source Event-Sink
 109     kind of the NextStep/C# very performant coupling, exposing events via
 110     Metadata
 111
 112 - Add Lazy Init of Eventtables
 113
 114
 115 Modules/Plugins
 116 ===============
 117
 118 Architecture
 119 ------------
 120
 121 We aim to arrive at a lazy initialization of modules only when they are first
 122 needed. Dependency information between modules is needed. Dynamic Plug-In
 123 loading and unloading must be compatible with that.
 124
 125
 126 wxUniversal
 127 ===========
 128
 129 - Renderers within native ports.
 130
 131
 132 wxPrinting
 133 ==========
 134
 135 - Page preflighting capabilities in order to determine number
 136   of pages.
 137 - Preview UI enhancement.
 138
 139
 140 wxStaticBox
 141 ===========
 142
 143 Hide the platform problems (GTK: 'children' must be siblings) in encapsulation
 144 in order to avoid problems on ports where the hierarchy must be
 145 'correct'.
 146
 147
 148 Removal of old code
 149 ===================
 150
 151 In addition to wxCOMPATIBILITY code:
 152
 153 - contrib/src/mmedia
 154 - contrib/src/applet?
 155 - Dialog Editor
 156
 157 wxMiscellaneous
 158 ===============
 159
 160 - wxDC Support for point to char-position with text rendering
 161 - wxLocale Extension (eg Currency)
 162 - wxStreams review
 163 - wxURL?
 164 - a way to tell wxWidgets to check for any non-portable usage,
 165   for a given set of platforms. Sometimes you want to be able
 166   to get away with non-portable usage, and sometimes not.
 167   This is probably way too time-consuming to implement.
 168 - In headers, don't silently omit contents if the features for this
 169   header is switched off. Instead, emit an error message.
 170 - Implement native tree view and colour dialog in wxGTK.
 171 - Better way to specify About, Preferences menu ids under wxMac.
 172 - Must be able to portably specify relaying out a frame after the toolbar
 173   has been destroyed or recreated. On wxMSW, this is done in
 174   ~wxToolBar. On wxGTK, in SetToolBar. In wxMac, not at all,
 175   but sending a wxSizeEvent will do it.
 176 - Need wxRect wxToolBar::GetToolRect(int id) or similar so we can
 177   align a popup menu with a toolbar button.
 178 - wxMac font selector dialog is the generic font selector -
 179   horrible.
 180 - No Append(wxArrayString&) for wxChoice and wxComboBox in wxGTK.
 181   Probably other functions too. Consider adding Insert to
 182   these classes, as per the patch on SF.
 183 - Rewrite wxFileHistory using wxString and wxArrayString, and
 184   put in separate file.
 185 - Add wxArrayString methods to wxTextValidator and any other
 186   class that needs them.
 187 - Add wxNotebook::GetTabRect or similar so we can estimate
 188   page size better in wxNotebookBase::CalcSizeFromPage.
 189 - Add function to clear all wxNotebook tabs without
 190   destroying the pages.
 191 - Add individual setters to wxScrollBar and other classes
 192   that use a combined setter.
 193 - Remove traces of old resource system from wxWizard.
 194 - Have wxDirCtrl as alias for wxGenericDirCtrl.
 195 - Allow instant reaction to left-up in a wxGrid cell
 196   (extend editor API) to work around bad checkbox
 197   behaviour (click, click, click, click away...) and
 198   reduce checkbox size on non-Windows platforms.
 199 - Add wxNotebook::HitTest for non-Windows platforms.
 200 - Implement rebar for all platforms. This will help us
 201   get closer to native look and feel, e.g. the gradient
 202   shadow on XP toolbars.
 203
 204 Version:      $Id$