Classes: \helpref{wxObject}{wxobject}, \helpref{wxClassInfo}{wxclassinfo}.
-One of the failings of C++ is that no run-time information is provided
+One of the failings of C++ used to be that no run-time information was provided
about a class and its position in the inheritance hierarchy.
-Another is that instances of a class cannot be created just by knowing the name of a class,
-which makes facilities such as persistent storage hard to implement.
+Another, which still persists, is that instances of a class cannot be created
+just by knowing the name of a class, which makes facilities such as persistent
+storage hard to implement.
Most C++ GUI frameworks overcome these limitations by means of a set of
-macros and functions and wxWindows (from version 1.62) is no exception.
+macros and functions and wxWidgets is no exception. As it originated before the
+addition of RTTI to the standard C++ and as support for it still missing from
+some (albeit old) compilers, wxWidgets doesn't (yet) use it, but provides its
+own macro-based RTTI system.
+
+In the future, the standard C++ RTTI will be used though and you're encouraged
+to use whenever possible \helpref{wxDynamicCast()}{wxdynamiccast} macro which,
+for the implementations that support it, is defined just as dynamic\_cast<> and
+uses wxWidgets RTTI for all the others. This macro is limited to wxWidgets
+classes only and only works with pointers (unlike the real dynamic\_cast<> which
+also accepts references).
+
Each class that you wish to be known the type system should have
a macro such as DECLARE\_DYNAMIC\_CLASS just inside the class declaration.
The macro IMPLEMENT\_DYNAMIC\_CLASS should be in the implementation file.
+Note that these are entirely optional; use them if you wish to check object
+types, or create instances of classes using the class name. However,
+it is good to get into the habit of adding these macros for all classes.
-Variations on these \helpref{macros}{macros} are used for multiple inheritance, and abstract
+Variations on these \helpref{macros}{rttimacros} are used for multiple inheritance, and abstract
classes that cannot be instantiated dynamically or otherwise.
DECLARE\_DYNAMIC\_CLASS inserts a static wxClassInfo declaration into the
stored in wxClassInfo, and is used when an object should be created
dynamically.
-wxObject::IsKindOf uses the linked list of wxClassInfo. It takes
-a wxClassInfo argument, so use CLASSINFO(className) to return an
-appropriate wxClassInfo pointer to use in this function.
+\helpref{wxObject::IsKindOf}{wxobjectiskindof} uses the linked list of
+wxClassInfo. It takes a wxClassInfo argument, so use CLASSINFO(className)
+to return an appropriate wxClassInfo pointer to use in this function.
The function \helpref{wxCreateDynamicObject}{wxcreatedynamicobject} can be used
to construct a new object of a given type, by supplying a string name.
\subsection{Example}
-In a header file wx\_frame.h:
+In a header file frame.h:
\begin{verbatim}
-class wxFrame: public wxWindow
+class wxFrame : public wxWindow
{
- DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxFrame)
+DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxFrame)
+
+private:
+ wxString m_title;
- private:
- char *frameTitle;
- public:
- ...
+public:
+ ...
};
\end{verbatim}
-In a C++ file wx\_frame.cc:
+In a C++ file frame.cpp:
\begin{verbatim}
IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxFrame, wxWindow)
-wxFrame::wxFrame(void)
+wxFrame::wxFrame()
{
...
}