[wxWidgets.git] / docs / html / faqmsw.htm

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wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ
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<P>

See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
<hr>

<h3>Which Windows platforms are supported?</h3>

wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. A Windows CE version is being looked into (see below).<P>

wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
<P>
16-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
<P>

wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>

You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
programs with TWIN32, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
without ever needing a copy of Microsoft Windows. See the Technical Note on the Web site detailing cross-compilation.<P>

<h3>What about Windows CE?</h3>

This is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
storage should not be a problem.<P>

<h3>What compilers are supported?</h3>

Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
currently the following are known to work:<P>

<ul>
<li>Visual C++ 1.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
<li>Borland C++ 4.5, 5.0
<li>Borland C++Builder 1.0, 3.0
<li>Watcom C++ 10.6 (WIN32)
<li>Cygwin b20
<li>Mingw32
<li>MetroWerks CodeWarrior 4
</ul>
<P>

There is a linking problem with Symantec C++ which I hope someone can help solve.
<P>

<h3>Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</h3>

It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
for wxWindows samples.<P>

Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>

C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>

You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>

CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>

Watcom C++ is a little slow and the debugger is not really up to today's standards.<P>

<h3>Is Unicode supported?</h3>

Not yet, although there are other internationalisation features.<P>

However, the issues surrounding Unicode support have been looked into so we know
what we need to do, and have some header files ready to use containing appropriate
type definitions. Just about every file in wxWindows will need changes, due to the
pervasive nature of characters and character arrays. Unicode support is needed
for the port to Windows CE (see above), and will probably be added in time for version 2.1.<P>

<h3>Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</h3>

Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
and have limited hard disk space.<P>

With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
wxWindows!
<P>

<H3>How can I reduce executable size?</H3>

You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>

Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
indirectly) referenced
by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 300KB using VC++ 6.<P>

If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
use <a href="http://www.icl.ndirect.co.uk/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
use DLLs.<P>

<H3>Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</H3>

There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
functionality using MFC.<P>

<H3>Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</H3>

Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>

VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>


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Commit	Line	Data
ce3ed50d JS	1	<HTML>
	2
	3	<HEAD>
	4	<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
	5	</HEAD>
	6
	7	<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 LINK=#FF0000 VLINK=#000000>
	8
	9	<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
	10
	11	<table width=100% border=4 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0>
	12	<tr>
	13	<td bgcolor="#660000">
	14	<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
	15	wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ
	16	</font>
	17	</td>
	18	</tr>
	19	</table>
	20
	21	<P>
	22
	23	See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
	24	<hr>
	25
b953bdc2	26	<h3>Which Windows platforms are supported?</h3>
ce3ed50d	27
0bc9b25e	28	wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
b953bdc2 JS	29	Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. A Windows CE version is being looked into (see below).<P>
	30
	31	wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
	32	we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
ce3ed50d	33	work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
0bc9b25e	34	However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
ce3ed50d JS	35	class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
	36	makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
	37	<P>
	38	16-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
	39	<P>
	40
b953bdc2 JS	41	wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
	42	although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
	43	Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>
	44
	45	You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
	46	in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
	47	using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
	48	programs with TWIN32, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
	49	without ever needing a copy of Microsoft Windows. See the Technical Note on the Web site detailing cross-compilation.<P>
	50
	51	<h3>What about Windows CE?</h3>
	52
	53	This is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
	54	There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
	55	as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
	56	by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
	57	and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
	58	the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
	59	storage should not be a problem.<P>
	60
ce3ed50d JS	61	<h3>What compilers are supported?</h3>
	62
	63	Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
	64	currently the following are known to work:<P>
	65
	66	<ul>
	67	<li>Visual C++ 1.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
	68	<li>Borland C++ 4.5, 5.0
	69	<li>Borland C++Builder 1.0, 3.0
	70	<li>Watcom C++ 10.6 (WIN32)
	71	<li>Cygwin b20
	72	<li>Mingw32
	73	<li>MetroWerks CodeWarrior 4
	74	</ul>
	75	<P>
	76
	77	There is a linking problem with Symantec C++ which I hope someone can help solve.
	78	<P>
	79
	80	<h3>Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</h3>
	81
	82	It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
	83	good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
	84	Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
	85	for wxWindows samples.<P>
	86
	87	Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
	88	the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>
	89
	90	C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
	91	own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
	92	it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>
	93
	94	You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
	95	quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>
	96
	97	CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
	98	the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>
	99
	100	Watcom C++ is a little slow and the debugger is not really up to today's standards.<P>
	101
	102	<h3>Is Unicode supported?</h3>
	103
0bc9b25e	104	Not yet, although there are other internationalisation features.<P>
ce3ed50d JS	105
	106	However, the issues surrounding Unicode support have been looked into so we know
	107	what we need to do, and have some header files ready to use containing appropriate
	108	type definitions. Just about every file in wxWindows will need changes, due to the
	109	pervasive nature of characters and character arrays. Unicode support is needed
0bc9b25e	110	for the port to Windows CE (see above), and will probably be added in time for version 2.1.<P>
ce3ed50d	111
b953bdc2	112	<h3>Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</h3>
ce3ed50d	113
9838df2c	114	Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
b953bdc2 JS	115	and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
	116	delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
	117	and have limited hard disk space.<P>
	118
	119	With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
	120	needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
	121	negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
	122	wxWindows!
	123	<P>
	124
9838df2c JS	125	<H3>How can I reduce executable size?</H3>
	126
	127	You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
0bc9b25e JS	128	compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
0bc9b25e JS	129	take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>
9838df2c JS	130
	131	Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
	132	wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
	133	techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
	134	indirectly) referenced
	135	by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 300KB using VC++ 6.<P>
	136
	137	If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
	138	use <a href="http://www.icl.ndirect.co.uk/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
	139	by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
	140	will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
	141	use DLLs.<P>
	142
0bc9b25e	143	<H3>Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</H3>
b953bdc2 JS	144
	145	There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
	146	application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
	147	functionality using MFC.<P>
ce3ed50d	148
ad813b00 JS	149	<H3>Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</H3>
	150
	151	Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
	152	options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
	153	If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
	154	check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
	155	if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
	156	symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
	157	the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>
	158
	159	VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
	160	cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
	161	Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
	162	switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
	163	larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
	164	strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
	165	optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
	166	Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
	167	Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>
	168
ce3ed50d JS	169
	170	</font>
	171
	172	</BODY>
	173
	174	</HTML>