fltk/documentation/src/migration_1_4.dox

/**

 \page  migration_1_4   Migrating Code from FLTK 1.3 to 1.4

This appendix describes the differences between FLTK
1.3.x and FLTK 1.4.x functions and classes and potential requirements
to change source code. We also explain how code can be made compatible
so it can be compiled by both FLTK 1.3.x and 1.4.x.

If you need to migrate your code from prior FLTK versions to FLTK 1.4,
then you should first consult the relevant appendices in the FLTK 1.3
online documentation or by downloading the FLTK 1.3 documentation.
See https://www.fltk.org/doc-1.3/index.html and/or
https://www.fltk.org/software.php , respectively.


\section migration_1_4_headers Changes in Header Files

We strive to include only necessary header files in the public headers
of the FLTK library to reduce dependencies and hence compile times.

We try to avoid including system header files as far as possible. Known
exceptions are \<stdio.h> where file system structures and functions are
visible in the public API, for instance \p FILE*, and sometimes essential
header files like \<stdlib.h> and/or \<stddef.h>. Some required system
headers \b may be included in platform specific header files like
\<FL/platform.H> or \<FL/platform_types.h>.

In earlier versions (1.3.x) some of the public FLTK headers included some
not strictly required system headers by accident.

The consequence for building user programs with FLTK 1.4 is that if you
require a system or FLTK header in your user program that you don't
\e \#include explicitly but which has been included by FLTK 1.3.x your
FLTK 1.3 program may issue compiler errors or warnings about missing header
files or missing declarations when compiled with FLTK 1.4.

This is not a fault of FLTK 1.4 but a fault of the source code that did
not include all required headers.

In FLTK 1.4 inclusion of \<FL/Fl.H> is no longer a strict requirement as
it was required and documented in FLTK 1.3.x. In FLTK 1.4 you may still
need to '\#include \<FL/Fl.H>' if you are using enumerations or methods
of class \c Fl like Fl::run() but there are exceptions where this header
is included by other FLTK headers, like Fl_Window.H and other subclasses.

Suggested solution: include all FLTK and system header files your source
code requires explicitly and don't rely on FLTK headers to include a
particular header file. If you want your code to be as much as possible
compatible with FLTK 1.3.x, then you should \c '\#include \<FL/Fl.H>'
as required by 1.3.x.

You don't need to include headers of base classes - this is done by all
FLTK headers as required. Besides that you need to include some support
headers if you use FLTK functions like \p fl_choice() and others.
This is described in the function's documentation (if a required header
is missing in the docs this is a bug).

If you follow these rules your program will be compatible with both
FLTK 1.3.x and FLTK 1.4.x as long as you use only functions and classes
defined in FLTK 1.3.


\section migration_1_4_preferences Fl_Preferences

Starting with FLTK 1.3, preference databases are expected to be in UTF-8
encoding. Previous databases were stored in the current character set or
code page which renders them incompatible for text entries using
international characters.

Starting with FLTK 1.4, searching a valid path to store the preference
files has changed slightly. Please see
Fl_Preferences::Fl_Preferences(Root, const char*, const char*)
for details.

On Unix/Linux platforms new FLTK preference files are stored using the
<a href='https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html'>
XDG Base Directory Specification</a> which means in essence that user preference
files are stored in the user's home directory under the subdirectory \p .config,
i.e. in \p \$HOME/.config/fltk.org/ rather than \p \$HOME/.fltk/fltk.org/.
Existing preference files are still found and used, hence this new location
is optional.

You may want to move the preference files from their old locations to their
new locations as documented in
Fl_Preferences::Fl_Preferences(Root, const char*, const char*) .

New Fl_Preferences types \p Fl_Preferences::USER_L, \p Fl_Preferences::SYSTEM_L
and some more combinations with \p "_L" suffix have been defined to make
preference files independent of the current locale. This is particularly
important for floating point data which is stored in text form with varying
decimal separator depending on the locale (either '.' or ','). You may want to
change your program to use these new constants instead of those without the
\p "_L" suffix. For more information see the documentation of Fl_Preferences.


\section migration_1_4_add_timeout Fl::add_timeout and friends

Since FLTK 1.4.0 internal timeout handling has been unified across platforms.
This ensures equal timeout handling, improved accuracy of Fl::repeat_timeout(),
and easier maintenance (less potential for errors).

This will very likely not affect user code, however there is one subtle
exception on macOS and Windows: in FLTK 1.3.x these platforms used system
timers to schedule timeouts. Since FLTK 1.4.0 all platforms use the same
internal timer management that was previously only used on Unix/Linux/X11.
The consequence of this change is that the FLTK event loop needs to be
executed to trigger timeout events, i.e. you must either call Fl::wait()
repeatedly or start the event loop with Fl::run().

Code that did not execute the event loop and relied on the system timers has
never been cross platform compatible, i.e. it wouldn't work on Unix/Linux.
An example would be code that opened a splash window, scheduled a timeout
with Fl::add_timeout(), and waited for the timer event w/o running the
FLTK event loop. Such code must be modified to execute Fl::run() and/or
use Fl::wait().


\section migration_1_4_fl_override New FL_OVERRIDE Macro

FLTK 1.4 defines a new macro \p FL_OVERRIDE as "override" if a recent
C++ standard (C++11 or higher) is used to compile your code.

This macro is currently defined in FL/fl_attr.h but this may change in a
future release. It is enough to '\#include <FL/Fl.H>' to enable this macro.

Unfortunately Visual Studio does not define a meaningful value of
\p __cplusplus to detect the C++ standard. Hence we use the Visual Studio
version (2015 or higher) to decide whether we can define FL_OVERRIDE or not.

The \p FL_OVERRIDE macro is used to decorate declarations of overridden virtual
methods in subclasses. Example code from \p FL/Fl_Window.H:

  \code
    int handle(int) FL_OVERRIDE;
    void resize(int X, int Y, int W, int H) FL_OVERRIDE;
    Fl_Window * as_window() FL_OVERRIDE { return this; }
  \endcode

The \p FL_OVERRIDE macro translates to \p 'override' on newer compilers and
to an empty string for older compilers.

We recommend to add this to your overridden virtual methods in subclasses
derived from FLTK base classes (widgets) and to compile with C++ standard
C++11 or higher to enable the compiler to detect some errors if methods
are not overridden correctly.

You don't need to declare the overridden methods \p 'virtual' if you
use \p FL_OVERRIDE or the keyword \p override.

\b Hint: For the \p GCC and \p clang compilers you can enable the warning
\p '-Wsuggest-override' to detect where you may (want to) add the
\p FL_OVERRIDE macro.


\section migration_1_4_copy_image Fl_Image::copy() 'const'

Since FLTK 1.4.0 the virtual method Fl_Image::copy() has been declared
'const' so read-only ('const') images can be copied w/o casts.

This will very likely not affect user code. However, if you derived your
own class from any of the \p Fl_*_Image variants \b and you overrode
\p Your_Image::copy() then you \b must declare this 'const' as well, i.e.
you must add the keyword 'const' to the declaration of \p copy() in your
header file and in the implementation.

We suggest to add the new \p FL_OVERRIDE macro or the keyword 'override'
(see above) to your own overridden method declarations to enable the
compiler to detect such incompatibilities.

Code example in header file:
\code
  class Your_Image {
    // ...
    Fl_Image *copy() const FL_OVERRIDE;
    Fl_Image *copy(int w, int h) const FL_OVERRIDE;
  };
\endcode

Note the \p 'const' attribute \b and the \p FL_OVERRIDE macro.


\section migration_1_4_modern_cmake Modern CMake

FLTK 1.4.0 supports "modern" CMake rather than old or "classic" CMake
which was used in FLTK 1.3.x. Modern CMake was introduced in CMake 3.0
(~ 2014) and further developed in later CMake versions. FLTK 1.4.0 requires
at least CMake 3.15 (~ 2019) as of Febrary 2024.

There are a lot of advantages that motivated this transition (mentioning
only some):

  - easier to use for projects using FLTK
  - better structure
  - uses CMake targets rather than variables
  - embeddable in user projects via FetchContent() etc.
  - embeddable in user projects via add_subdirectory()
  - better coexistence with main projects if built as a subproject

Note that CMake targets can provide all required build flags and build
dependencies which is the main advantage for user projects. For instance,
instead of linking both fltk and fltk_images you need only fltk_images
and fltk is linked in automatically.

Unfortunately there is one drawback you may encounter: Several CMake build
option names have been changed, compared to FLTK 1.3.x. This is due to the
fact that CMake cache variables are shared between the main (aka superbuild)
project and all subprojects. Therefore all FLTK options are now prefixed
with FLTK_.

This feature is now CMake standard and very common in newer projects. The
CMake developers recommend strongly to use modern CMake.

We took the opportunity to redesign all CMake related options and target
names for FLTK 1.4.0 to avoid changing these names later. Note that CMake
support in 1.3.x was only experimental and the one in FLTK 1.4 (Git) up to
the official release was beta state by definition. We apologize for all
inconveniencies, hope that this is one of the rare exceptions in FLTK
development, and that the new names are now stable as usual.


Changes in Detail:

Since FLTK 1.4.0 CMake target names are "namespaced", i.e. they are created
with the prefix 'fltk::' and the old prefix 'fltk_' has been stripped off
as far as the CMakeLists.txt file of user projects is concerned. The known
filenames on disk did not change though.

The shared library target names use the common suffix "-shared" rather
than "_SHARED".

The library 'fltk_cairo' is no longer used. Its functionality has been included
in libfltk. FLTK 1.4.0 creates a dummy (empty) libfltk_cairo for backwards
compatibility only. Please remove fltk_cairo from your projects and use only
'fltk::fltk' and/or the other libraries instead.

For more information and documentation of all options please refer to the
file README.CMake.txt in the FLTK root directory.


Old and New Library Targets:

Library         | Old Target   | New Target      | Shared Library Target
----------------|--------------|-----------------|-----------------------
fltk            | fltk         | fltk::fltk      | fltk::fltk-shared
fltk_forms      | fltk_forms   | fltk::forms     | fltk::forms-shared
fltk_gl         | fltk_gl      | fltk::gl        | fltk::gl-shared
fltk_images     | fltk_images  | fltk::images    | fltk::images-shared
fltk_jpeg       | fltk_jpeg    | fltk::jpeg      | fltk::jpeg-shared
fltk_png        | fltk_png     | fltk::png       | fltk::png-shared
fltk_z          | fltk_z       | fltk::z         | fltk::z-shared
fluid           | fluid        | fltk::fluid     | n/a

For project developers used to the old (1.3.x) names the following table can
assist to find the new option names. This table is ordered alphabetically
by the old option name. Note that some option names did not change and
some of the "old" names have been introduced in early 1.4.0 development.

Old Option Name (FLTK 1.3.x)         | New Option Name (FLTK 1.4.x)
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
FLTK_BUILD_EXAMPLES                  | FLTK_BUILD_EXAMPLES
FLTK_BUILD_FLTK_OPTIONS              | FLTK_BUILD_FLTK_OPTIONS
FLTK_BUILD_FLUID                     | FLTK_BUILD_FLUID
FLTK_BUILD_FORMS                     | FLTK_BUILD_FORMS
FLTK_BUILD_TEST                      | FLTK_BUILD_TEST
FLTK_MSVC_RUNTIME_DLL                | FLTK_MSVC_RUNTIME_DLL
OPTION_ABI_VERSION                   | FLTK_ABI_VERSION
OPTION_ALLOW_GTK_PLUGIN              | FLTK_USE_LIBDECOR_GTK
OPTION_APPLE_X11                     | FLTK_BACKEND_X11
OPTION_ARCHFLAGS                     | FLTK_ARCHFLAGS
OPTION_BUILD_HTML_DOCUMENTATION      | FLTK_BUILD_HTML_DOCS
OPTION_BUILD_PDF_DOCUMENTATION       | FLTK_BUILD_PDF_DOCS
OPTION_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS             | FLTK_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS
OPTION_CAIRO                         | FLTK_OPTION_CAIRO_WINDOW
OPTION_CAIROEXT                      | FLTK_OPTION_CAIRO_EXT
OPTION_CREATE_LINKS                  | FLTK_INSTALL_LINKS
OPTION_FILESYSTEM_SUPPORT            | FLTK_OPTION_FILESYSTEM_SUPPORT
OPTION_INCLUDE_DRIVER_DOCUMENTATION  | FLTK_INCLUDE_DRIVER_DOCS
OPTION_INSTALL_HTML_DOCUMENTATION    | FLTK_INSTALL_HTML_DOCS
OPTION_INSTALL_PDF_DOCUMENTATION     | FLTK_INSTALL_PDF_DOCS
OPTION_LARGE_FILE                    | FLTK_OPTION_LARGE_FILE
OPTION_OPTIM                         | FLTK_OPTION_OPTIM
OPTION_PRINT_SUPPORT                 | FLTK_OPTION_PRINT_SUPPORT
OPTION_USE_CAIRO                     | FLTK_GRAPHICS_CAIRO
OPTION_USE_GDIPLUS                   | FLTK_GRAPHICS_GDIPLUS
OPTION_USE_GL                        | FLTK_BUILD_GL
OPTION_USE_KDIALOG                   | FLTK_USE_KDIALOG
OPTION_USE_PANGO                     | FLTK_USE_PANGO
OPTION_USE_POLL                      | FLTK_USE_POLL
OPTION_USE_STD                       | FLTK_OPTION_STD
OPTION_USE_SVG                       | FLTK_OPTION_SVG
OPTION_USE_SYSTEM_LIBDECOR           | FLTK_USE_SYSTEM_LIBDECOR
OPTION_USE_SYSTEM_LIBJPEG            | FLTK_USE_SYSTEM_LIBJPEG
OPTION_USE_SYSTEM_LIBPNG             | FLTK_USE_SYSTEM_LIBPNG
OPTION_USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB               | FLTK_USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB
OPTION_USE_THREADS                   | FLTK_USE_PTHREADS
OPTION_USE_WAYLAND                   | FLTK_BACKEND_WAYLAND
OPTION_USE_XCURSOR                   | FLTK_USE_XCURSOR
OPTION_USE_XFIXES                    | FLTK_USE_XFIXES
OPTION_USE_XFT                       | FLTK_USE_XFT
OPTION_USE_XINERAMA                  | FLTK_USE_XINERAMA
OPTION_USE_XRENDER                   | FLTK_USE_XRENDER
OPTION_WAYLAND_ONLY                  | FLTK_BACKEND_X11=OFF


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