wxWidgets Discussion Forum

Why doesn't wxWidgets use the wx namespace? Or give the ability to use C++ exceptions?

computerquip wrote:Why doesn't wxWidgets use the wx namespace? Or give the ability to use C++ exceptions?

I suppose cause all wxWidgets classes already have prefix "wx" before them names...

This was discussed to death

The main reason is that wx started before namespaces existed. And now there's no point re-doing everything for such little gain

If someone were to go in and change everything to the wx namespace and submit a patch, would it be accepted?

computerquip wrote:If someone were to go in and change everything to the wx namespace and submit a patch, would it be accepted?

this is a question for the mailing list

computerquip wrote:If someone were to go in and change everything to the wx namespace and submit a patch, would it be accepted?

What for? To make wxWidgets more complicated?

No! Why would I suggest something that did nothing but complicate. Namespaces aren't terribly complicated in concept anyways, plus they give a few minor advantages. One mainly being a distinct scope which gives the user a little bit more flexibility. For instance, he could use or Although, please remember this isn't the only subject that I brought up. Another topic was C++ exceptions. There are also a few advantageous abilities that exceptions provide, one mainly being clean-like error handling, and shortened, organized code. Just a few suggestions and asking about the obvious, not making a revolution here or anything...

On a side note: Exceptions take a toll in C++ whether you use them or not. There's really no definite reason why not to use them other than preference.

Another side note: These are simply small things that add miniscule differences. I can picture why small things like namespaces can be a huge leap though since any new versions of wxWidgets would have to be remade to relate to the new major change.

The main problem in 2.8 was that many of the support compilers did not support name-spaces and C++ exceptions. The wx Team dropped a few old compilers/versions. If all the supported compilers can do name spaces the wx team might support/use the patch to do name spaces; the patch would require a lot of work for very little short term gain, the long term might be a major gain.

Note: The patch would be needed against widgets trunk and would likely take a lot of effort to keep updating because it could be a few years before if might be applied to the trunk.

I would see if the wx develop team would want the patch before doing much work.
http://www.wxwidgets.org/support/maillst2.htm

wxWidget links; I an mainly a C programmer; so, I am not certain these links are useful.
http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Namespaces

Tim S.

AFAK, some wxWidgets macros (DECLARE/IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS or BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE ...) can not accepts "::" in class names, so introduce wx namespace can be difficult.