wxWidgets/docs/contributing/how-to-add-new-wxUSE_XXX.md

How to add a new `wxUSE_XXX` preprocessor constant
================================================

0. Purpose
----------

Detailed description of what needs to be done when you want to add a new
`wxUSE_XXX` compilation flag. The text below assumes you need new `wxUSE_FOO`.


1. Overview
-----------

wxWidgets uses `wxUSE_XXX` macros for conditionally compiling in (or not)
optional components. In general, whenever a new non critical (i.e. not
absolutely required by important parts of the library) class Foo is added it
should use its own `wxUSE_FOO` compilation flag.

`wxUSE_FOO` must be always defined and have value of 0 or 1. Be careful with
testing for it in wx/foo.h: don't do it at the very beginning of the file
because then `wxUSE_FOO` would be not defined at all if the user directly
includes wx/foo.h, include "wx/defs.h" before testing for `wxUSE_FOO`.


2. Files to update
------------------

The following files need to be modified when adding a new `wxUSE_FOO`:

a) include/wx/setup_inc.h

   This file contains all common `wxUSE_XXXs`, and is used to update wxMSW, wxMac
   setup.h and Unix setup.h.in using build/update-setup-h. Please try to add
   the new define in a logical place (i.e. near any related ones) and write a
   detailed comment explaining what does it do and why would you want to turn
   it on/off. Choose the appropriate default value: this should be usually 1
   but can be 0 if there are some problems preventing the use of Foo by default
   (e.g. it requires installation of some non standard 3rd party libraries).
   After changing this file, run the update-setup-h script (this is probably
   better done on a Unix machine although it should work under Cygwin too).

a') include/wx/msw/setup_inc.h for MSW-specific options

   This file contains MSW-specific options, so if the new option is only used
   under MSW, add it here instead of include/wx/setup_inc.h. The rest of the
   instructions is the same as above.

b) include/wx/chkconf.h

   Add the check for `wxUSE_FOO` definedness in the corresponding (base or GUI)
   section. Please keep the alphabetic order.

   If there are any dependencies, i.e. `wxUSE_FOO` requires `wxUSE_BAR` and
   `wxUSE_BAZ`, check for thme here too.

b') include/wx/msw/chkconf.h for MSW-specific options

   These options won't be defined for the other ports, so shouldn't be added to
   the common include/wx/chkconf.h but to this file instead.

c) configure.in

   Here you need to add `DEFAULT_wxUSE_FOO` define. It should be added in the
   block beginning after WX_ARG_CACHE_INIT line and should default to "no" for
   "if DEBUG_CONFIGURE = 1" branch (this is used for absolutely minimal builds)
   and the same as default value in setup_inc.h in the "else" branch.

   You also need to add a WX_ARG_ENABLE (or, if new functionality can be
   reasonably described as support for a 3rd party library, WX_ARG_WITH)
   line togetherw with all the existing WX_ARG_ENABLEs.

   If you have a sample/foo which should be only built when `wxUSE_FOO==1`,
   then only add it to the SAMPLES_SUBDIRS if `wxUSE_FOO=yes` in configure.

d) docs/doxygen/mainpages/const_wxusedef.h

   Add a brief description of the new constant.