There are several features in C++ which moc does not support. CopperSpice was written to maintain the advantages and power of Signals and Slots without the limitations it introduced. New capabilities and functionality were added in C++11 which provided the power to remove the Meta Object Compiler while maintaining full Reflection in CopperSpice.

With moc

The following is a summary of what is lost when using moc.

• Class templates can not contain Signals or Slots
• Nested classes can not have Signals or Slots
• A macro can not be used to declare a Signal or a Slot
• Macros can not be used to define a base class for a QObject
• Macros can not be used to define the data type for Signal or Slot parameters
• Virtual inheritance with QObject is not supported
• Signal and Slot parameters can not b function or method pointers

• Multiple Inheritance
  • Multiple inheritance requires QObject to be the first parent
  • With multiple inheritance moc assumed the first inherited class is a subclass of QObject

• Enums and Typedefs
  • Enums and Typedefs must be fully qualified with the complete scope for signal and slot parameters
  • If you are using a string based QObject::connect() the signal and slot signatures are compared as strings
    • Data types like double and qreal are equivalent but will not match since qreal is a typedef
    • Using method pointers or lambda expressions will bypass this restriction

Without moc

None of the limitations listed above exist in CopperSpice.

• A templated class can inherit from QObject
• The QObject class can be anywhere in the multiple inheritance list
• Easier to build since there are no generated files to get out of sync