[wxWidgets.git] / docs / doxygen / overviews / roughguide.h

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Name:        roughguide
// Purpose:     topic overview
// Author:      wxWidgets team
// RCS-ID:      $Id$
// Licence:     wxWindows license
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

/*!

 @page roughguide_overview Writing a wxWidgets application: a rough guide

 To set a wxWidgets application going, you will need to derive a #wxApp class and
 override wxApp::OnInit.
 An application must have a top-level #wxFrame or #wxDialog window.
 Each frame may contain one or more instances of classes such as #wxPanel, #wxSplitterWindow
 or other windows and controls.
 A frame can have a #wxMenuBar, a #wxToolBar, a status line, and a #wxIcon for
 when the frame is iconized.
 A #wxPanel is used to place controls (classes derived from #wxControl)
 which are used for user interaction. Examples of controls are #wxButton,
 #wxCheckBox, #wxChoice, #wxListBox,
 #wxRadioBox, #wxSlider.
 Instances of #wxDialog can also be used for controls and they have
 the advantage of not requiring a separate frame.
 Instead of creating a dialog box and populating it with items, it is possible to choose
 one of the convenient common dialog classes, such as #wxMessageDialog
 and #wxFileDialog.
 You never draw directly onto a window - you use a @e device context (DC). #wxDC is
 the base for #wxClientDC, #wxPaintDC, #wxMemoryDC, #wxPostScriptDC,
 #wxMemoryDC, #wxMetafileDC and #wxPrinterDC.
 If your drawing functions have @b wxDC as a parameter, you can pass any of these DCs
 to the function, and thus use the same code to draw to several different devices.
 You can draw using the member functions of @b wxDC, such as wxDC::DrawLine
 and wxDC::DrawText. Control colour on a window (#wxColour) with
 brushes (#wxBrush) and pens (#wxPen).
 To intercept events, you add a DECLARE_EVENT_TABLE macro to the window class declaration,
 and put a BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE ... END_EVENT_TABLE block in the implementation file. Between these
 macros, you add event macros which map the event (such as a mouse click) to a member function.
 These might override predefined event handlers such as for #wxKeyEvent and
 #wxMouseEvent.
 Most modern applications will have an on-line, hypertext help system; for this, you
 need wxHelp and the #wxHelpController class to control
 wxHelp.
 GUI applications aren't all graphical wizardry. List and hash table needs are
 catered for by #wxList and #wxHashMap.
 You will undoubtedly need some platform-independent @ref filefunctions_overview,
 and you may find it handy to maintain and search a list of paths using #wxPathList.
 There's a #miscellany of operating system and other functions.
 See also @ref classesbycat_overview for a list of classes.

 */
Commit	Line	Data
15b6757b FM	1	/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	2	// Name: roughguide
	3	// Purpose: topic overview
	4	// Author: wxWidgets team
	5	// RCS-ID: $Id$
	6	// Licence: wxWindows license
	7	/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	8
	9	/*!
36c9828f	10
15b6757b	11	@page roughguide_overview Writing a wxWidgets application: a rough guide
36c9828f	12
15b6757b FM	13	To set a wxWidgets application going, you will need to derive a #wxApp class and
	14	override wxApp::OnInit.
	15	An application must have a top-level #wxFrame or #wxDialog window.
	16	Each frame may contain one or more instances of classes such as #wxPanel, #wxSplitterWindow
	17	or other windows and controls.
	18	A frame can have a #wxMenuBar, a #wxToolBar, a status line, and a #wxIcon for
	19	when the frame is iconized.
	20	A #wxPanel is used to place controls (classes derived from #wxControl)
	21	which are used for user interaction. Examples of controls are #wxButton,
	22	#wxCheckBox, #wxChoice, #wxListBox,
	23	#wxRadioBox, #wxSlider.
	24	Instances of #wxDialog can also be used for controls and they have
	25	the advantage of not requiring a separate frame.
	26	Instead of creating a dialog box and populating it with items, it is possible to choose
	27	one of the convenient common dialog classes, such as #wxMessageDialog
	28	and #wxFileDialog.
	29	You never draw directly onto a window - you use a @e device context (DC). #wxDC is
	30	the base for #wxClientDC, #wxPaintDC, #wxMemoryDC, #wxPostScriptDC,
	31	#wxMemoryDC, #wxMetafileDC and #wxPrinterDC.
	32	If your drawing functions have @b wxDC as a parameter, you can pass any of these DCs
	33	to the function, and thus use the same code to draw to several different devices.
	34	You can draw using the member functions of @b wxDC, such as wxDC::DrawLine
	35	and wxDC::DrawText. Control colour on a window (#wxColour) with
	36	brushes (#wxBrush) and pens (#wxPen).
	37	To intercept events, you add a DECLARE_EVENT_TABLE macro to the window class declaration,
	38	and put a BEGIN_EVENT_TABLE ... END_EVENT_TABLE block in the implementation file. Between these
	39	macros, you add event macros which map the event (such as a mouse click) to a member function.
	40	These might override predefined event handlers such as for #wxKeyEvent and
	41	#wxMouseEvent.
	42	Most modern applications will have an on-line, hypertext help system; for this, you
	43	need wxHelp and the #wxHelpController class to control
	44	wxHelp.
	45	GUI applications aren't all graphical wizardry. List and hash table needs are
	46	catered for by #wxList and #wxHashMap.
	47	You will undoubtedly need some platform-independent @ref filefunctions_overview,
	48	and you may find it handy to maintain and search a list of paths using #wxPathList.
	49	There's a #miscellany of operating system and other functions.
	50	See also @ref classesbycat_overview for a list of classes.
36c9828f	51
15b6757b	52	*/
36c9828f FM	53
36c9828f FM	54