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<b>wxWidgets FAQ: General</b>
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<P>

See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
<hr>
<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="#whatis">What is wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#licence">Can I use wxWidgets for both proprietary projects, and GPL&#39;ed projects?</a></li>
<li><a href="#support">Is there support?</a></li>
<li><a href="#users">Who uses wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#specific">How does wxWidgets support platform-specific features?</a></li>
<li><a href="#stl">Does wxWidgets use STL? or the standard string class?</a></li>
<li><a href="#richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWidgets?</a></ li>
<li><a href="#exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWidgets?</a></ li>
<li><a href="#dev">How is wxWidgets being developed?</a></li>
<li><a href="#distrib">How is wxWidgets distributed?</a></li>
<!--
<li><a href="#future">What are the plans for the future?</a></li>
-->
<li><a href="#base">What is wxBase?</a></li>
<li><a href="#univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></li>
<li><a href="#jave">What about Java?</a></li>
<li><a href="#dotnet">What about .NET/Mono?</a></li>
<li><a href="#help">How can I help the project?</a></li>
<li><a href="#newport">How do I start a new port?</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>

<H3><a name="whatis">What is wxWidgets?</a></H3>

wxWidgets is a class library that allows you to compile graphical C++ programs on a range of
different platforms. wxWidgets defines a common API across platforms, but uses the native graphical user interface (GUI) on each platform,
so your program will take on the native &#39;look and feel&#39; that users are familiar with.<P>

Although GUI applications are mostly built programmatically, there are several dialog editors to help
build attractive dialogs and panels. Robert Roebling&#39;s <a href="http://www.roebling.com">wxDesigner</a>
and Anthemion Software&#39;s <a href="http://www.anthemion.co.uk/dialogblocks/" target=_new>DialogBlocks</a>
are two commercial examples, but there are others: see the <a href="lnk_tool.htm">Useful Tools</a> page.<P>

You don&#39;t have to use C++ to use wxWidgets: there is a <a href="http://wxpython.org">Python interface</a> for wxWidgets,
and also a <a href="http://wxperl.sourceforge.net" target=_top>Perl interface</a>.
<P>

<h3><a name="licence">Can I use wxWidgets for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL&#39;ed projects?</a></h3>

Yes. Please see the <a href="newlicen.htm">licence</a> for details, but basically
you can distribute proprietary binaries without distributing any source code, and neither will wxWidgets
conflict with GPL code you may be using or developing with it.
<P>
The conditions for using wxWidgets are the same whether you are a personal, academic
or commercial developer.
<P>

<h3><a name="support">Is there support?</a></h3>

No official support, but the mailing list is very helpful and some people say that
wxWidgets support is better than for much commercial software. The developers are
keen to fix bugs as soon as possible, though obviously there are no guarantees.
<P>

<H3><a name="users">Who uses wxWidgets?</a></H3>

Many organisations - commercial, government, and academic - across the
world. It&#39;s impossible to estimate the true number of users, since
wxWidgets is obtained by many different means, and we cannot monitor
distribution. The mailing list contains around 300-400 entries which is
quite large for a list of this type.<P>

See <a href="users.htm">Users</a> for a list of some users and their applications, and
also <A href="feedback.htm">Feedback</a> for comments.<P>
Our highest-profile user yet is industry veteran and Lotus Corp. founder Mitch Kapor
and his <a href="http://www.osafoundation.org" target=_new>Open Source Applications Foundation</a>.
<P>

<H3><a name="platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWidgets?</a></H3>

<ul>
<li>Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME.
<li>Linux and other Unix platforms with GTK+.
<li>Unix with Motif or the free Motif clone Lesstif.
<li>Mac OS.
<li>Embedded platforms are being investigated. See the <a href="wxuniv.htm">wxUniversal</a> project.
<li>An OS/2 port is in progress, and you can also compile wxWidgets for GTK+ or Motif
on OS/2.
</ul>
<P>

<H3><a name="specific">How does wxWidgets support platform-specific
features?</a></H3>

This is a hotly-debated topic amongst the developers. My own philosophy
is to make wxWidgets as platform-independent as possible, but allow in a
few classes (functions, window styles) that are platform-specific.
For example, Windows metafiles and Windows 95 taskbar icons have
their own classes on Windows, but nowhere else. Because these classes
are provided and are wxWidgets-compatible, it doesn&#39;t take much
coding effort for an application programmer to add support for
some functionality that the user on a particular platform might otherwise
miss. Also, some classes that started off as platform-specific, such
as the MDI classes, have been emulated on other platforms. I can imagine
that even wxTaskBarIcon may be implemented for Unix desktops one day.
<P>

In other words, wxWidgets is not a &#39;lowest common denominator&#39; approach,
but it will still be possible to write portable programs using the
core API. Forbidding some platform-specific classes would be a stupid
approach that would alienate many potential users, and encourage
the perception that toolkits such as wxWidgets are not up to the demands
of today&#39;s sophisticated applications.<P>

Currently resources such as bitmaps and icons are handled in a platform-specific
way, but it is hoped to reduce this dependence in due course.<P>

Another reason why wxWidgets is not a &#39;lowest common denominator&#39; toolkit is that
some functionality missing on some platform has been provided using generic,
platform-independent code, such as the wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl classes.<P>

<H3><a name="stl">Does wxWidgets use STL? or the standard string class?</a></H3>

No. This is a much-discussed topic that has (many times) ended with the conclusion that it is in
wxWidgets&#39; best interests to avoid use of templates. Not all compilers can handle
templates adequately so it would dramatically reduce the number of compilers
and platforms that could be supported. It would also be undesirable to make
wxWidgets dependent on another large library that may have to be downloaded and installed.
In addition, use of templates can lead to executable bloat, which is something
wxWidgets is strenuously trying to avoid.<P>

The standard C++ string class is not used, again because it is not available to all compilers,
and it is not necessarily a very efficient implementation. Also, we retain more flexibility
by being able to modify our own string class. Some compatibility with the string class
has been built into wxString.<P>

There is nothing to stop an application using templates or the string class for its own
purposes. With wxWidgets debugging options on, you may find you get errors when including
STL headers. You can work around it either by switching off memory checking,
or by adding this to a header before you include any STL files:<P>

<PRE>
&#35;ifdef new
&#35;undef new
&#35;endif
</PRE>

<P>


<H3><a name="richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWidgets?</a></H3>

These are the possibilities so far:<P>

<ul>
<li>See <a href="http://www.scintilla.org" target=_top>www.scintilla.org</a> for
a very nice syntax-highlighting editor widget. Robin Dunn has written a wxWidgets wrapper
for this widget, available in the wxWidgets distribution under contrib/src/stc.
<li>If you only need to display marked-up information, rather than edit it,
then wxHTML will suit your needs. wxHTML is built into wxWidgets - please see the reference
manual for details, and samples/html.
<li>There are rich edit widgets in both WIN32 and GTK+, but there is currently
no wxWidgets wrapper for these (but text attribute functions are being added in the wxWidgets 2.3.x series).
</ul>

<P>

<h3><a name="exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWidgets?</a></h3>

wxWidgets library itself is unfortunately <i>not</i> exception-safe (as its
initial version predates, by far, the addition of the exceptions to the C++
language). However you can still use the exceptions in your own code and use
the other libraries using the exceptions for the error reporting together with
wxWidgets.

<p>
There are a few issues to keep in mind, though:
<ul>
    <li>You shouldn&#39;t let the exceptions propagate through wxWidgets code,
        in particular you should always catch the exceptions thrown by the
        functions called from an event handler in the handler itself and not
        let them propagate upwards to wxWidgets.

    <li>You may need to ensure that the compiler support for the exceptions is
        enabled as, considering that wxWidgets itself doesn&#39;t use the
        exceptions and turning their support on results in the library size
        augmentation of 10% to 20%, it is turned off by default for a few
        compilers. Moreover, for gcc (or at least its mingw version) you must
        also turn on the RTTI support to be able to use the exceptions, so you
        should use <tt>--disable-no_rtti --disable-no_exceptions</tt> options
        when configuring the library (attention to the double negation).
</ul>

<p>

<H3><a name="dev">How is wxWidgets being developed?</a></H3>

We are using the <a href="cvs.htm">CVS</a> system to develop and maintain wxWidgets. This allows
us to make alterations and upload them instantly to the server, from
which others can update their source.<P>

To build source from CVS, see the file BuildCVS.txt in the top-level wxWidgets distribution
directory.<P>

<H3><a name="distrib">How is wxWidgets distributed?</a></H3>

By ftp, and via the <a href="cdrom2.htm">wxWidgets CD-ROM</a>.
<P>
If you are feeling adventurous, you may also check out the sources directly
from <a href="cvs.htm">cvs</a>.
<p>

<!--
<H3><a name="future">What are the plans for the future?</a></H3>

TODO

<p>

-->

<h3><a name="base">What is wxBase?</a></h3>

wxBase is a subset of wxWidgets comprised by the non-GUI classes. It includes
wxWidgets container and primitive data type classes (including wxString,
wxDateTime and so on) and also useful wrappers for the operating system objects
such as files, processes, threads, sockets and so on. With very minor
exceptions wxBase may be used in exactly the same way as wxWidgets but it
doesn&#39;t require a GUI to run and so is ideal for creating console mode
utilities or server programs. It is also possible to create a program which can
be compiled either as a console application (using wxBase) or a GUI one (using
a full featured wxWidgets port).

<H3><a name="univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></H3>

The main difference between wxUniversal-based ports (such as wxX11, wxMGL) and other ports (such as wxMSW, wxGTK+, wxMac)
is that wxUniversal implements all controls (or widgets) in
wxWidgets itself thus allowing to have much more flexibility (for example, support for
themes even under MS Windows). It also means that it is now much easier to
port wxWidgets to a new platform as only the low-level classes must be ported
which make for a small part of the library.
<p>
You may find more about wxUniversal <a href=wxuniv.htm>here</a>.

<H3><a name="jave">What about Java?</a></H3>

The Java honeymoon period is over :-) and people are realising that it cannot
meet all their cross-platform development needs. We don&#39;t anticipate a major threat
from Java, and the level of interest in wxWidgets is as high as ever.<P>

<H3><a name="dotnet">What about .NET/Mono?</a></H3>

Microsoft is spending a lot on promoting the .NET initiative, which
is a set of languages, APIs and web service components for Windows.
Ximian has started an open source version of .NET, mostly for Linux.
C&#35; is Microsoft&#39;s alternative to Java, supporting &#39;managed code&#39;,
garbage collection and various other Java-like language features.<P>

Although this may be attractive to some developers, there
is a variety of reasons why the .NET/Mono combination is unlikely
to make wxWidgets redundant. Please note that the following comments
are Julian Smart&#39;s opinions.<P>

<ol>
<li>Not everyone wants or needs net services.
<li>C++ will be used for a long time to come; compared with C++, C&#35; is a recent development and its future is not certain.
<li>Mono Forms may only target Winelib (at least to begin with), so the end result is not as native as
wxWidgets (I&#39;m aware there is GTK&#35; for use with the C&#35; language).
<li>C&#35; is usually byte-compiled and therefore slower. Plus, .NET adds a layer of overhead to the client computer
that wxWidgets does not require.
<li>Mono hasn&#39;t proven its long-term viability yet (it&#39;s a complex system of components); wxWidgets is ready now.
<li>You may not wish to buy into Microsoft marketing spin and APIs.
<li>Microsoft may at some point sue developers of non-Microsoft .NET implementations. After all,
platform-independence is not in Microsoft&#39;s interest.
<li>.NET might never be implemented on some platforms, especially Mac and embedded variants of Linux.
<li>wxPython and other language variants provide further reasons for wxWidgets to continue.
<li>The same issue exists for Qt: if Qt sales remain strong, it&#39;s a good indication that
the market for a C++-based approach is still there. (Either that, or everyone&#39;s turning to wxWidgets!)
</ol>

There is nothing to stop folk from developing a C&#35; version of the wxWidgets API;
we already have bindings to Python, Perl, JavaScript, Lua, Basic, and Eiffel.
Update: a <a href="http://wxnet.sourceforge.net/" target=_new>wx.NET</a> project is now in progress.

<P>

<H3><a name="help">How can I help the project?</a></H3>

Please check out the <a href="http://www.wxwidgets.org/develop2.htm">Community</a> pages,
in particular the <a href="projects.htm">suggested projects</a>, and
mail the developers&#39; mailing list with your own suggestions.<P>

<H3><a name="newport">How do I start a new port?</a></H3>

Please subscribe to the wx-dev <a href="maillst2.htm">developers&#39; mailing list</a> and
ask if anyone else is interested in helping with the port, or
has specific suggestions. Also please read the <a href="standard.htm">coding standards</a>.

<P>
Each port consists of a platform-specific part (e.g. src/msw, include/wx/msw),
a generic set of widgets and dialogs for when the port doesn&#39;t support
them natively (src/generic, include/wx/generic) and the common code
that all ports use (src/common, include/wx). By browsing the source
you should get a good idea of the general pattern.<P>

Take a port that most closely matches your port, and strip out
the implementation so you have a skeleton port that compiles. Ask on wx-dev
first for the wxStubs port - however, any such predefined skeleton
port may be out of date, so make a judgement on whether to use it.
Perhaps it will still save you time to clean up wxStubs, and
others may benefit from this too.<P>

You will need to define a symbol for the new port, e.g. __WXXBOX__.
Look at files such as wx/defs.h, wx/wxchar.h for areas where you&#39;ll
need to add to existing conditionals to set up wide character
support and other issues. If the GUI runs on a Unix variant,
define the __UNIX__ variable in your makefile.<P>

Then you can start implementing the port, starting with
wxWindow, wxTopLevelWindow, wxFrame, wxDialog so you
can get the minimal sample running as soon as possible.<P>

If GDI objects (wxPen, wxBrush, etc.) are not concepts in your
native GUI, you may wish to use very generic versions of
some of these - see the wxX11 port.<P>

Consider using the wxUniversal widget set as a quick way
to implement wxWidgets on your platform. You only need
to define some basic classes such as device contexts,
wxWindow, wxTopLevelWindow, GDI objects etc. and
the actual widgets will be drawn for you. See wxX11,
wxMGL, and wxMSW/Univ for sample wxUniversal ports.<P>

To begin with, you can use whatever makefiles or project
files work for you. Look at existing makefiles to see what
generic/common/Unix files need to be included. Later, you&#39;ll want to integrate support
for your port into configure (Unix-like systems and gcc under Windows),
and bakefile (for other makefiles on Windows).<P>

Submit your port as patches via SourceForge; you might
wish to separate it into one patch that touches common headers
and source files, and another containing the port-specific code, to make
it much easier for us to review and apply the patches.<P>

Good luck!

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57d9fc85	1
ce3ed50d JS	2	<HTML>
	3
	4	<HEAD>
57d9fc85	5	<TITLE>wxWidgets FAQ: General</TITLE>
ce3ed50d JS	6	</HEAD>
ce3ed50d JS	7
4e4dc03d	8	<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 VLINK="#00376A" LINK="#00529C" ALINK="#313063">
ce3ed50d JS	9
	10	<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
	11
4e4dc03d	12	<table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
ce3ed50d	13	<tr>
4e4dc03d JS	14	<td bgcolor="#004080" align=left height=24 background="images/bluetitlegradient.gif">
4e4dc03d JS	15	<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
57d9fc85	16	<b>wxWidgets FAQ: General</b>
ce3ed50d JS	17	</font>
	18	</td>
	19	</tr>
	20	</table>
	21
	22	<P>
	23
	24	See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
	25	<hr>
8b283bb8 JS	26	<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
8b283bb8 JS	27	<ul>
c140b7e7	28	<li><a href="#whatis">What is wxWidgets?</a></li>
57d9fc85	29	<li><a href="#licence">Can I use wxWidgets for both proprietary projects, and GPL'ed projects?</a></li>
2b5f62a0	30	<li><a href="#support">Is there support?</a></li>
c140b7e7 JS	31	<li><a href="#users">Who uses wxWidgets?</a></li>
	32	<li><a href="#platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWidgets?</a></li>
	33	<li><a href="#specific">How does wxWidgets support platform-specific features?</a></li>
	34	<li><a href="#stl">Does wxWidgets use STL? or the standard string class?</a></li>
	35	<li><a href="#richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWidgets?</a></ li>
	36	<li><a href="#exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWidgets?</a></ li>
	37	<li><a href="#dev">How is wxWidgets being developed?</a></li>
	38	<li><a href="#distrib">How is wxWidgets distributed?</a></li>
57d9fc85	39	<!--
8b283bb8	40	<li><a href="#future">What are the plans for the future?</a></li>
57d9fc85	41	-->
2b5f62a0	42	<li><a href="#base">What is wxBase?</a></li>
8b283bb8 JS	43	<li><a href="#univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></li>
8b283bb8 JS	44	<li><a href="#jave">What about Java?</a></li>
c2d48b36	45	<li><a href="#dotnet">What about .NET/Mono?</a></li>
8b283bb8	46	<li><a href="#help">How can I help the project?</a></li>
6f92b0bb	47	<li><a href="#newport">How do I start a new port?</a></li>
8b283bb8 JS	48	</ul>
8b283bb8 JS	49	<hr>
ce3ed50d	50
c140b7e7	51	<H3><a name="whatis">What is wxWidgets?</a></H3>
ce3ed50d	52
c140b7e7 JS	53	wxWidgets is a class library that allows you to compile graphical C++ programs on a range of
c140b7e7 JS	54	different platforms. wxWidgets defines a common API across platforms, but uses the native graphical user interface (GUI) on each platform,
8b283bb8	55	so your program will take on the native 'look and feel' that users are familiar with.<P>
ce3ed50d	56
eb269381	57	Although GUI applications are mostly built programmatically, there are several dialog editors to help
8b283bb8	58	build attractive dialogs and panels. Robert Roebling's <a href="http://www.roebling.com">wxDesigner</a>
5147354c	59	and Anthemion Software's <a href="http://www.anthemion.co.uk/dialogblocks/" target=_new>DialogBlocks</a>
6f92b0bb	60	are two commercial examples, but there are others: see the <a href="lnk_tool.htm">Useful Tools</a> page.<P>
ce3ed50d	61
57d9fc85	62	You don't have to use C++ to use wxWidgets: there is a <a href="http://wxpython.org">Python interface</a> for wxWidgets,
8b283bb8	63	and also a <a href="http://wxperl.sourceforge.net" target=_top>Perl interface</a>.
ce3ed50d JS	64	<P>
ce3ed50d JS	65
57d9fc85	66	<h3><a name="licence">Can I use wxWidgets for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL'ed projects?</a></h3>
ce3ed50d JS	67
ce3ed50d JS	68	Yes. Please see the <a href="newlicen.htm">licence</a> for details, but basically
c140b7e7	69	you can distribute proprietary binaries without distributing any source code, and neither will wxWidgets
ce3ed50d JS	70	conflict with GPL code you may be using or developing with it.
ce3ed50d JS	71	<P>
57d9fc85	72	The conditions for using wxWidgets are the same whether you are a personal, academic
ce3ed50d JS	73	or commercial developer.
	74	<P>
	75
2b5f62a0	76	<h3><a name="support">Is there support?</a></h3>
ce3ed50d JS	77
ce3ed50d JS	78	No official support, but the mailing list is very helpful and some people say that
c140b7e7	79	wxWidgets support is better than for much commercial software. The developers are
ce3ed50d JS	80	keen to fix bugs as soon as possible, though obviously there are no guarantees.
	81	<P>
	82
c140b7e7	83	<H3><a name="users">Who uses wxWidgets?</a></H3>
ce3ed50d JS	84
ce3ed50d JS	85	Many organisations - commercial, government, and academic - across the
8b283bb8	86	world. It's impossible to estimate the true number of users, since
c140b7e7	87	wxWidgets is obtained by many different means, and we cannot monitor
ce3ed50d JS	88	distribution. The mailing list contains around 300-400 entries which is
	89	quite large for a list of this type.<P>
	90
51ab9400 JS	91	See <a href="users.htm">Users</a> for a list of some users and their applications, and
51ab9400 JS	92	also <A href="feedback.htm">Feedback</a> for comments.<P>
2b5f62a0 VZ	93	Our highest-profile user yet is industry veteran and Lotus Corp. founder Mitch Kapor
	94	and his <a href="http://www.osafoundation.org" target=_new>Open Source Applications Foundation</a>.
	95	<P>
b953bdc2	96
57d9fc85	97	<H3><a name="platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWidgets?</a></H3>
b953bdc2 JS	98
b953bdc2 JS	99	<ul>
8b283bb8 JS	100	<li>Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME.
	101	<li>Linux and other Unix platforms with GTK+.
	102	<li>Unix with Motif or the free Motif clone Lesstif.
	103	<li>Mac OS.
	104	<li>Embedded platforms are being investigated. See the <a href="wxuniv.htm">wxUniversal</a> project.
c140b7e7	105	<li>An OS/2 port is in progress, and you can also compile wxWidgets for GTK+ or Motif
51ab9400	106	on OS/2.
b953bdc2 JS	107	</ul>
	108	<P>
	109
57d9fc85	110	<H3><a name="specific">How does wxWidgets support platform-specific
8b283bb8	111	features?</a></H3>
b953bdc2 JS	112
b953bdc2 JS	113	This is a hotly-debated topic amongst the developers. My own philosophy
c140b7e7	114	is to make wxWidgets as platform-independent as possible, but allow in a
b953bdc2 JS	115	few classes (functions, window styles) that are platform-specific.
	116	For example, Windows metafiles and Windows 95 taskbar icons have
	117	their own classes on Windows, but nowhere else. Because these classes
c140b7e7	118	are provided and are wxWidgets-compatible, it doesn't take much
b953bdc2 JS	119	coding effort for an application programmer to add support for
	120	some functionality that the user on a particular platform might otherwise
	121	miss. Also, some classes that started off as platform-specific, such
	122	as the MDI classes, have been emulated on other platforms. I can imagine
	123	that even wxTaskBarIcon may be implemented for Unix desktops one day.
	124	<P>
	125
c140b7e7	126	In other words, wxWidgets is not a 'lowest common denominator' approach,
b953bdc2 JS	127	but it will still be possible to write portable programs using the
	128	core API. Forbidding some platform-specific classes would be a stupid
	129	approach that would alienate many potential users, and encourage
c140b7e7	130	the perception that toolkits such as wxWidgets are not up to the demands
8b283bb8	131	of today's sophisticated applications.<P>
b953bdc2 JS	132
	133	Currently resources such as bitmaps and icons are handled in a platform-specific
	134	way, but it is hoped to reduce this dependence in due course.<P>
	135
57d9fc85	136	Another reason why wxWidgets is not a 'lowest common denominator' toolkit is that
b953bdc2 JS	137	some functionality missing on some platform has been provided using generic,
	138	platform-independent code, such as the wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl classes.<P>
	139
c140b7e7	140	<H3><a name="stl">Does wxWidgets use STL? or the standard string class?</a></H3>
b953bdc2 JS	141
b953bdc2 JS	142	No. This is a much-discussed topic that has (many times) ended with the conclusion that it is in
c140b7e7	143	wxWidgets' best interests to avoid use of templates. Not all compilers can handle
b953bdc2	144	templates adequately so it would dramatically reduce the number of compilers
966a4a52	145	and platforms that could be supported. It would also be undesirable to make
c140b7e7	146	wxWidgets dependent on another large library that may have to be downloaded and installed.
b953bdc2	147	In addition, use of templates can lead to executable bloat, which is something
57d9fc85	148	wxWidgets is strenuously trying to avoid.<P>
b953bdc2 JS	149
	150	The standard C++ string class is not used, again because it is not available to all compilers,
	151	and it is not necessarily a very efficient implementation. Also, we retain more flexibility
	152	by being able to modify our own string class. Some compatibility with the string class
	153	has been built into wxString.<P>
	154
	155	There is nothing to stop an application using templates or the string class for its own
c140b7e7	156	purposes. With wxWidgets debugging options on, you may find you get errors when including
8b283bb8 JS	157	STL headers. You can work around it either by switching off memory checking,
	158	or by adding this to a header before you include any STL files:<P>
	159
	160	<PRE>
	161	#ifdef new
	162	#undef new
	163	#endif
	164	</PRE>
	165
	166	<P>
	167
b953bdc2	168
57d9fc85	169	<H3><a name="richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWidgets?</a></H3>
790ad94f JS	170
	171	These are the possibilities so far:<P>
	172
	173	<ul>
790ad94f	174	<li>See <a href="http://www.scintilla.org" target=_top>www.scintilla.org</a> for
c140b7e7 JS	175	a very nice syntax-highlighting editor widget. Robin Dunn has written a wxWidgets wrapper
c140b7e7 JS	176	for this widget, available in the wxWidgets distribution under contrib/src/stc.
790ad94f	177	<li>If you only need to display marked-up information, rather than edit it,
c140b7e7	178	then wxHTML will suit your needs. wxHTML is built into wxWidgets - please see the reference
790ad94f JS	179	manual for details, and samples/html.
790ad94f JS	180	<li>There are rich edit widgets in both WIN32 and GTK+, but there is currently
c140b7e7	181	no wxWidgets wrapper for these (but text attribute functions are being added in the wxWidgets 2.3.x series).
790ad94f JS	182	</ul>
	183
	184	<P>
	185
c140b7e7	186	<h3><a name="exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWidgets?</a></h3>
53e112a0	187
c140b7e7	188	wxWidgets library itself is unfortunately <i>not</i> exception-safe (as its
53e112a0 JS	189	initial version predates, by far, the addition of the exceptions to the C++
	190	language). However you can still use the exceptions in your own code and use
	191	the other libraries using the exceptions for the error reporting together with
c140b7e7	192	wxWidgets.
53e112a0 JS	193
	194	<p>
	195	There are a few issues to keep in mind, though:
	196	<ul>
c140b7e7	197	<li>You shouldn't let the exceptions propagate through wxWidgets code,
53e112a0 JS	198	in particular you should always catch the exceptions thrown by the
53e112a0 JS	199	functions called from an event handler in the handler itself and not
c140b7e7	200	let them propagate upwards to wxWidgets.
53e112a0 JS	201
53e112a0 JS	202	<li>You may need to ensure that the compiler support for the exceptions is
c140b7e7	203	enabled as, considering that wxWidgets itself doesn't use the
53e112a0 JS	204	exceptions and turning their support on results in the library size
	205	augmentation of 10% to 20%, it is turned off by default for a few
	206	compilers. Moreover, for gcc (or at least its mingw version) you must
	207	also turn on the RTTI support to be able to use the exceptions, so you
	208	should use <tt>--disable-no_rtti --disable-no_exceptions</tt> options
	209	when configuring the library (attention to the double negation).
	210	</ul>
	211
	212	<p>
	213
c140b7e7	214	<H3><a name="dev">How is wxWidgets being developed?</a></H3>
b953bdc2	215
c140b7e7	216	We are using the <a href="cvs.htm">CVS</a> system to develop and maintain wxWidgets. This allows
2b5f62a0	217	us to make alterations and upload them instantly to the server, from
b953bdc2 JS	218	which others can update their source.<P>
b953bdc2 JS	219
c140b7e7	220	To build source from CVS, see the file BuildCVS.txt in the top-level wxWidgets distribution
91c93c99 JS	221	directory.<P>
91c93c99 JS	222
c140b7e7	223	<H3><a name="distrib">How is wxWidgets distributed?</a></H3>
b953bdc2	224
c140b7e7	225	By ftp, and via the <a href="cdrom2.htm">wxWidgets CD-ROM</a>.
8b283bb8 JS	226	<P>
8b283bb8 JS	227	If you are feeling adventurous, you may also check out the sources directly
2b5f62a0	228	from <a href="cvs.htm">cvs</a>.
8b283bb8	229	<p>
b953bdc2	230
57d9fc85	231	<!--
8b283bb8	232	<H3><a name="future">What are the plans for the future?</a></H3>
b953bdc2	233
57d9fc85	234	TODO
b953bdc2	235
57d9fc85	236	<p>
b953bdc2	237
57d9fc85	238	-->
b953bdc2	239
2b5f62a0 VZ	240	<h3><a name="base">What is wxBase?</a></h3>
2b5f62a0 VZ	241
c140b7e7 JS	242	wxBase is a subset of wxWidgets comprised by the non-GUI classes. It includes
c140b7e7 JS	243	wxWidgets container and primitive data type classes (including wxString,
2b5f62a0 VZ	244	wxDateTime and so on) and also useful wrappers for the operating system objects
2b5f62a0 VZ	245	such as files, processes, threads, sockets and so on. With very minor
c140b7e7	246	exceptions wxBase may be used in exactly the same way as wxWidgets but it
2b5f62a0 VZ	247	doesn't require a GUI to run and so is ideal for creating console mode
	248	utilities or server programs. It is also possible to create a program which can
	249	be compiled either as a console application (using wxBase) or a GUI one (using
c140b7e7	250	a full featured wxWidgets port).
2b5f62a0	251
8b283bb8 JS	252	<H3><a name="univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></H3>
8b283bb8 JS	253
2b5f62a0 VZ	254	The main difference between wxUniversal-based ports (such as wxX11, wxMGL) and other ports (such as wxMSW, wxGTK+, wxMac)
2b5f62a0 VZ	255	is that wxUniversal implements all controls (or widgets) in
c140b7e7	256	wxWidgets itself thus allowing to have much more flexibility (for example, support for
2b5f62a0	257	themes even under MS Windows). It also means that it is now much easier to
c140b7e7	258	port wxWidgets to a new platform as only the low-level classes must be ported
8b283bb8 JS	259	which make for a small part of the library.
	260	<p>
	261	You may find more about wxUniversal <a href=wxuniv.htm>here</a>.
	262
	263	<H3><a name="jave">What about Java?</a></H3>
b953bdc2 JS	264
b953bdc2 JS	265	The Java honeymoon period is over :-) and people are realising that it cannot
8b283bb8	266	meet all their cross-platform development needs. We don't anticipate a major threat
c140b7e7	267	from Java, and the level of interest in wxWidgets is as high as ever.<P>
b953bdc2	268
c2d48b36 JS	269	<H3><a name="dotnet">What about .NET/Mono?</a></H3>
	270
	271	Microsoft is spending a lot on promoting the .NET initiative, which
	272	is a set of languages, APIs and web service components for Windows.
	273	Ximian has started an open source version of .NET, mostly for Linux.
5147354c	274	C# is Microsoft's alternative to Java, supporting 'managed code',
c2d48b36 JS	275	garbage collection and various other Java-like language features.<P>
	276
	277	Although this may be attractive to some developers, there
	278	is a variety of reasons why the .NET/Mono combination is unlikely
c140b7e7	279	to make wxWidgets redundant. Please note that the following comments
5147354c	280	are Julian Smart's opinions.<P>
c2d48b36 JS	281
	282	<ol>
	283	<li>Not everyone wants or needs net services.
	284	<li>C++ will be used for a long time to come; compared with C++, C# is a recent development and its future is not certain.
	285	<li>Mono Forms may only target Winelib (at least to begin with), so the end result is not as native as
5147354c	286	wxWidgets (I'm aware there is GTK# for use with the C# language).
c2d48b36	287	<li>C# is usually byte-compiled and therefore slower. Plus, .NET adds a layer of overhead to the client computer
c140b7e7	288	that wxWidgets does not require.
5147354c	289	<li>Mono hasn't proven its long-term viability yet (it's a complex system of components); wxWidgets is ready now.
c2d48b36	290	<li>You may not wish to buy into Microsoft marketing spin and APIs.
eb269381	291	<li>Microsoft may at some point sue developers of non-Microsoft .NET implementations. After all,
5147354c	292	platform-independence is not in Microsoft's interest.
c2d48b36	293	<li>.NET might never be implemented on some platforms, especially Mac and embedded variants of Linux.
c140b7e7	294	<li>wxPython and other language variants provide further reasons for wxWidgets to continue.
5147354c JS	295	<li>The same issue exists for Qt: if Qt sales remain strong, it's a good indication that
5147354c JS	296	the market for a C++-based approach is still there. (Either that, or everyone's turning to wxWidgets!)
c2d48b36 JS	297	</ol>
c2d48b36 JS	298
c140b7e7	299	There is nothing to stop folk from developing a C# version of the wxWidgets API;
c2d48b36 JS	300	we already have bindings to Python, Perl, JavaScript, Lua, Basic, and Eiffel.
	301	Update: a <a href="http://wxnet.sourceforge.net/" target=_new>wx.NET</a> project is now in progress.
	302
	303	<P>
	304
8b283bb8	305	<H3><a name="help">How can I help the project?</a></H3>
b953bdc2	306
6f92b0bb	307	Please check out the <a href="http://www.wxwidgets.org/develop2.htm">Community</a> pages,
8b283bb8	308	in particular the <a href="projects.htm">suggested projects</a>, and
2b5f62a0	309	mail the developers' mailing list with your own suggestions.<P>
b953bdc2	310
6f92b0bb JS	311	<H3><a name="newport">How do I start a new port?</a></H3>
	312
	313	Please subscribe to the wx-dev <a href="maillst2.htm">developers' mailing list</a> and
	314	ask if anyone else is interested in helping with the port, or
	315	has specific suggestions. Also please read the <a href="standard.htm">coding standards</a>.
	316
	317	<P>
	318	Each port consists of a platform-specific part (e.g. src/msw, include/wx/msw),
5147354c	319	a generic set of widgets and dialogs for when the port doesn't support
6f92b0bb JS	320	them natively (src/generic, include/wx/generic) and the common code
	321	that all ports use (src/common, include/wx). By browsing the source
	322	you should get a good idea of the general pattern.<P>
	323
	324	Take a port that most closely matches your port, and strip out
	325	the implementation so you have a skeleton port that compiles. Ask on wx-dev
	326	first for the wxStubs port - however, any such predefined skeleton
	327	port may be out of date, so make a judgement on whether to use it.
	328	Perhaps it will still save you time to clean up wxStubs, and
	329	others may benefit from this too.<P>
	330
	331	You will need to define a symbol for the new port, e.g. __WXXBOX__.
5147354c	332	Look at files such as wx/defs.h, wx/wxchar.h for areas where you'll
6f92b0bb JS	333	need to add to existing conditionals to set up wide character
	334	support and other issues. If the GUI runs on a Unix variant,
	335	define the __UNIX__ variable in your makefile.<P>
	336
	337	Then you can start implementing the port, starting with
	338	wxWindow, wxTopLevelWindow, wxFrame, wxDialog so you
	339	can get the minimal sample running as soon as possible.<P>
	340
	341	If GDI objects (wxPen, wxBrush, etc.) are not concepts in your
	342	native GUI, you may wish to use very generic versions of
	343	some of these - see the wxX11 port.<P>
	344
	345	Consider using the wxUniversal widget set as a quick way
	346	to implement wxWidgets on your platform. You only need
	347	to define some basic classes such as device contexts,
	348	wxWindow, wxTopLevelWindow, GDI objects etc. and
	349	the actual widgets will be drawn for you. See wxX11,
	350	wxMGL, and wxMSW/Univ for sample wxUniversal ports.<P>
	351
	352	To begin with, you can use whatever makefiles or project
	353	files work for you. Look at existing makefiles to see what
5147354c	354	generic/common/Unix files need to be included. Later, you'll want to integrate support
6f92b0bb JS	355	for your port into configure (Unix-like systems and gcc under Windows),
	356	and bakefile (for other makefiles on Windows).<P>
	357
	358	Submit your port as patches via SourceForge; you might
	359	wish to separate it into one patch that touches common headers
	360	and source files, and another containing the port-specific code, to make
	361	it much easier for us to review and apply the patches.<P>
	362
	363	Good luck!
	364
ce3ed50d JS	365	</font>
	366
	367	</BODY>
	368
	369	</HTML>