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 (1.X)
  58     At least WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY and maybe WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2 code should be
  59     removed from the library. wxDEPRECATED() should be used with everything
  60     inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_2. The stuff inside WXWIN_COMPATIBILITY_2_4
  61     probably should not be deprecated (yet?) because this would give thousands
  62     of warnings for the existing code.
  63
  64 - Modularization/Build System
  65     Candidates for components:
  66         +   contrib widgets (and maybe some of the ones currently in the core)
  67         +   wxHTML
  68         +   network stuff
  69         +   printing (?)
  70         +   ODBC classes
  71         +   ...
  72
  73 - Project File Generation
  74     We need a (GUI) tool to generate the project/makefiles for all supported
  75     platforms/compilers. Not sure if it should be used for the library itself
  76     (would be nice to have something like "make menuconfig" for Linux kernel
  77      which allows you to navigate easily among all of the configure/setup.h
  78      options but there is a problem with distributing such tool as it can't be
  79      compiled by the user because it is needed before the library is built) but
  80     we definitely need it for the users makefiles.
  81
  82 - Properties/Member-Metadata, 2-Step Init with virtual create
  83
  84 - Tidy code and add comments to headers (possibly in
  85   Doxygen/Javadoc style)
  86
  87
  88 Documentation
  89 =============
  90
  91 - The possibility of moving doc into header files with tool
  92   support.
  93 - Detailed review of doc accuracy.
  94 - wxDC : Precise definition of default/initial state.
  95 - wxDC : Pixelwise definition of operations (e.g. last point of a
  96   line not drawn).
  97 - Events:
  98     For all controls state clearly when calling a member function results in an
  99     event being generated and when it doesn't.
 100 - Update the coding standards guide
 101
 102
 103 wxEvents
 104 ========
 105
 106 - Change Idle Handling
 107     Current Implementation is using too many CPU cycles
 108
 109 - Loose Coupling Event-Source Event-Sink
 110     kind of the NextStep/C# very performant coupling, exposing events via
 111     Metadata
 112
 113 - Add Lazy Init of Eventtables
 114
 115
 116 Modules/Plugins
 117 ===============
 118
 119 Architecture
 120 ------------
 121
 122 We aim to arrive at a lazy initialization of modules only when they are first
 123 needed. Dependency information between modules is needed. Dynamic Plug-In
 124 loading and unloading must be compatible with that.
 125
 126
 127 wxUniversal
 128 ===========
 129
 130 - Renderers within native ports.
 131
 132
 133 wxPrinting
 134 ==========
 135
 136 - Page preflighting capabilities in order to determine number
 137   of pages.
 138 - Preview UI enhancement.
 139
 140
 141 wxStaticBox
 142 ===========
 143
 144 Hide the platform problems (GTK: 'children' must be siblings) in encapsulation
 145 in order to avoid problems on ports where the hierarchy must be
 146 'correct'.
 147
 148
 149 Removal of old code
 150 ===================
 151
 152 In addition to wxCOMPATIBILITY code:
 153
 154 - contrib/src/mmedia
 155 - contrib/src/applet?
 156 - Dialog Editor
 157
 158 wxMiscellaneous
 159 ===============
 160
 161 - wxDC Support for point to char-position with text rendering
 162 - wxLocale Extension (eg Currency)
 163 - wxStreams review
 164 - wxURL?
 165 - a way to tell wxWidgets to check for any non-portable usage,
 166   for a given set of platforms. Sometimes you want to be able
 167   to get away with non-portable usage, and sometimes not.
 168   This is probably way too time-consuming to implement.
 169 - In headers, don't silently omit contents if the features for this
 170   header is switched off. Instead, emit an error message.
 171 - Implement native tree view and colour dialog in wxGTK.
 172 - Better way to specify About, Preferences menu ids under wxMac.
 173 - Must be able to portably specify relaying out a frame after the toolbar
 174   has been destroyed or recreated. On wxMSW, this is done in
 175   ~wxToolBar. On wxGTK, in SetToolBar. In wxMac, not at all,
 176   but sending a wxSizeEvent will do it.
 177 - Need wxRect wxToolBar::GetToolRect(int id) or similar so we can
 178   align a popup menu with a toolbar button.
 179 - wxMac font selector dialog is the generic font selector -
 180   horrible.
 181 - No Append(wxArrayString&) for wxChoice and wxComboBox in wxGTK.
 182   Probably other functions too. Consider adding Insert to
 183   these classes, as per the patch on SF.
 184 - Rewrite wxFileHistory using wxString and wxArrayString, and
 185   put in separate file.
 186 - Add wxArrayString methods to wxTextValidator and any other
 187   class that needs them.
 188 - Add wxNotebook::GetTabRect or similar so we can estimate
 189   page size better in wxNotebookBase::CalcSizeFromPage.
 190 - Add function to clear all wxNotebook tabs without
 191   destroying the pages.
 192 - Add individual setters to wxScrollBar and other classes
 193   that use a combined setter.
 194 - Remove traces of old resource system from wxWizard.
 195 - Have wxDirCtrl as alias for wxGenericDirCtrl.
 196 - Allow instant reaction to left-up in a wxGrid cell
 197   (extend editor API) to work around bad checkbox
 198   behaviour (click, click, click, click away...) and
 199   reduce checkbox size on non-Windows platforms.
 200 - Add wxNotebook::HitTest for non-Windows platforms.
 201 - Implement rebar for all platforms. This will help us
 202   get closer to native look and feel, e.g. the gradient
 203   shadow on XP toolbars.
 204
 205 Version:      $Id$