wxWidgets and memory allocation failures.

[Jurko Gospodnetić]

   Hi.

   I am doing a bit of research into wxWidgets (using wxWidgets 2.8.3) 
and noticed that it generally ignores memory allocation failures in 
release mode.

   In debug mode it generally detects such failures and causes an 
assertion failure, but in release mode it seems to simply close its eyes 
and hope for a miracle.

   For an example see wxStringBase::append().

   I tried searching for more information on this on the net and the 
wxWidgets documentation but could not find anything relevant. If I 
missed it, could someone please point me in the right direction?


   And on the subject of ignoring memory allocation failures - I 
personally do not agree with this strategy. It seems like an ok strategy 
to ignore stuff that may not happen since a set of developer tests would 
have caught them if they could, but memory allocation is one of those 
things that may go wrong at run-time with no chance for catching it 
using any kind of development-time testing.

   I realize that such cases are extremely rare and that more often than 
not the only possible error handling scenario is to terminate the 
application as painlessly as possible. However, I do not think that 
'shutting your eyes' and risking undefined behavior (data corruption, 
missile launches, whatever...) is the way to go. I rather prefer getting 
a std::bad_alloc exception in such cases.


   Any thoughts on this? Are there any planned changes intended to deal 
with these situations? As it is, I do not feel 'all yummy and safe' 
using wxWidgets' 'dynamic allocation' structures in production 
applications holding any sort of relevant data. And since the wxString 
class is one of those and is used pretty much everywhere throughout 
wxWidgets...

   WxWidgets seems like a too d*mn good and useful library to just not 
use it on such a technicality but what are the alternatives? Ignore the 
problem? Always use it in debug mode?


   Best regards,
     Jurko Gospodnetić