-// the one and only application object - use of wxTheApp in application code
-// is discouraged, consider using DECLARE_APP() after which you may call
-// wxGetApp() which will return the object of the correct type (i.e. MyApp and
-// not wxApp)
-WXDLLEXPORT_DATA(extern wxApp*) wxTheApp;
+// for compatibility, we define this macro to access the global application
+// object of type wxApp
+//
+// note that instead of using of wxTheApp in application code you should
+// consider using DECLARE_APP() after which you may call wxGetApp() which will
+// return the object of the correct type (i.e. MyApp and not wxApp)
+//
+// the cast is safe as in GUI build we only use wxApp, not wxAppConsole, and in
+// console mode it does nothing at all
+#define wxTheApp ((wxApp *)wxApp::GetInstance())