[wxWidgets.git] / docs / base / readme.txt

				wxBase README
				=============

NB: this file applies to wxBase library only. If you are using a GUI version
    of wxWindows, please refer to the documentation in the appropriate
    subdirectory (msw, gtk, motif &c).


 Welcome to wxBase!

0. Introduction
---------------

 wxBase is the library providing most of the non-GUI classes of the wxWindows
cross-platform C++ framework. wxBase has some generic classes such as yet
another C++ string class, typesafe dynamic arrays, hashes and lists and, more
excitingly, wxDateTime - a very flexible and powerful class for manipulating
the dates in the range of 580 million years with up to millisecond precision.
Another useful class not present in the standard C++ library is wxRegEx which
allows you to use regular expressions for string matching and replacing.

 There are also classes for writing portable programs in C++ painlessly which
encapsulate things like files (and their names), directories, processes,
threads, sockets and much more. Some of the other utility classes allow you to
parse the command line, limit the number of instances of your program
executing simultaneously (portably!) and so on.

1. Requirments and supported platforms
--------------------------------------

 wxBase can be compiled and used under Win32, mostly any modern Unix system
(probably including Mac OS X but it wasn't tested there), VMS and BeOS (this
release couldn't be tested under these platforms neither so you might
encounter some problems but they should be easy to solve - please contact us
in this case!)

 It is written without using any modern C++ features (such as templates,
exceptions, namespaces) for maximal portability and so you shouldn't have
problems compiling it with any C++ compiler at all. However, we only provide
the project files for Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 for Win32 (any contributions
are welcome!) - but our Unix makefiles will work with any compiler.

2. Installing under Win32
-------------------------

Please note that wxBase can be compiled in different configurations under
Win32: as a static or shared library, in debug or release mode and in ANSI
or Unicode mode for a total of 8 possibilities.

a) Using Visual C++ 6.0

   Simply open the src/wxBase.dsw file in MSDEV and build it. When it is
done you can also open samples/console/console.dsp project and build it as
well.

b) Cygwin

   Please refer to the Unix section below

c) Other compilers

   Unfortunately we don't have the makefiles for any other compilers yet.
Please contact us if you would like to help us with creating one for the
compiler you use.

3. Installing under Unix/BeOS
-----------------------------

NB: If you're building wxBase from the wxWindows distribution and not from a
    separate wxBase one you will need to add "--disable-gui" to configure
    arguments below!

Please note that GNU make is required to build wxBase!

The recommended way to build wxBase is:

	% cd ..../wxWindows
	% mkdir base-release
	% cd base-release
	% ../configure
	# ignore the error messages about missing samples
	% make
	% make install

You can also do:

	% mkdir base-debug
	% cd base-debug
	% ../configure --enable-debug
	% make

To build the sample then cd to samples/console and make there.

4. Documentation and support
----------------------------

 The console sample provided with this distribution tests most (but not all)
wxBase classes. It doesn't do anything useful per itself but you may want to
look at its code to see examples of usage of the class you are interested in.

 There is no separate documentation for wxBase, please refer to wxWindows
documentation instead.

 Support for wxBase is available from the same places as for wxWindows itself,
namely:

* Usenet newsgroup comp.soft-sys.wxwindows

* Mailing lists: see http://lists.wxwindows.org/ for more information

* WWW page: http://www.wxwindows.org/


 Hope you will find wxBase useful!

								 Vadim Zeitlin


This file is accurate for the version 2.3.2 of wxBase. It was last modified on
Dec 11, 2001.
Commit	Line	Data
22b41d3e VZ	1	wxBase README
22b41d3e VZ	2	=============
2224580a	3
22b41d3e VZ	4	NB: this file applies to wxBase library only. If you are using a GUI version
	5	of wxWindows, please refer to the documentation in the appropriate
	6	subdirectory (msw, gtk, motif &c).
2224580a	7
2224580a	8
22b41d3e VZ	9	Welcome to wxBase!
	10
	11	0. Introduction
	12	---------------
	13
	14	wxBase is the library providing most of the non-GUI classes of the wxWindows
	15	cross-platform C++ framework. wxBase has some generic classes such as yet
	16	another C++ string class, typesafe dynamic arrays, hashes and lists and, more
	17	excitingly, wxDateTime - a very flexible and powerful class for manipulating
	18	the dates in the range of 580 million years with up to millisecond precision.
	19	Another useful class not present in the standard C++ library is wxRegEx which
	20	allows you to use regular expressions for string matching and replacing.
	21
	22	There are also classes for writing portable programs in C++ painlessly which
	23	encapsulate things like files (and their names), directories, processes,
	24	threads, sockets and much more. Some of the other utility classes allow you to
	25	parse the command line, limit the number of instances of your program
	26	executing simultaneously (portably!) and so on.
	27
	28	1. Requirments and supported platforms
	29	--------------------------------------
	30
	31	wxBase can be compiled and used under Win32, mostly any modern Unix system
	32	(probably including Mac OS X but it wasn't tested there), VMS and BeOS (this
	33	release couldn't be tested under these platforms neither so you might
	34	encounter some problems but they should be easy to solve - please contact us
	35	in this case!)
	36
	37	It is written without using any modern C++ features (such as templates,
	38	exceptions, namespaces) for maximal portability and so you shouldn't have
	39	problems compiling it with any C++ compiler at all. However, we only provide
	40	the project files for Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 for Win32 (any contributions
	41	are welcome!) - but our Unix makefiles will work with any compiler.
	42
	43	2. Installing under Win32
	44	-------------------------
	45
	46	Please note that wxBase can be compiled in different configurations under
	47	Win32: as a static or shared library, in debug or release mode and in ANSI
	48	or Unicode mode for a total of 8 possibilities.
	49
	50	a) Using Visual C++ 6.0
	51
	52	Simply open the src/wxBase.dsw file in MSDEV and build it. When it is
	53	done you can also open samples/console/console.dsp project and build it as
	54	well.
	55
	56	b) Cygwin
	57
	58	Please refer to the Unix section below
	59
	60	c) Other compilers
	61
	62	Unfortunately we don't have the makefiles for any other compilers yet.
	63	Please contact us if you would like to help us with creating one for the
	64	compiler you use.
	65
	66	3. Installing under Unix/BeOS
	67	-----------------------------
	68
	69	NB: If you're building wxBase from the wxWindows distribution and not from a
	70	separate wxBase one you will need to add "--disable-gui" to configure
	71	arguments below!
	72
73	Please note that GNU make is required to build wxBase!
74
75	The recommended way to build wxBase is:
76
77	% cd ..../wxWindows
78	% mkdir base-release
79	% cd base-release
80	% ../configure
81	# ignore the error messages about missing samples
82	% make
83	% make install
84
85	You can also do:
86
87	% mkdir base-debug
88	% cd base-debug
89	% ../configure --enable-debug
90	% make
91
92	To build the sample then cd to samples/console and make there.
93
94	4. Documentation and support
95	----------------------------
96
97	The console sample provided with this distribution tests most (but not all)
98	wxBase classes. It doesn't do anything useful per itself but you may want to
99	look at its code to see examples of usage of the class you are interested in.
100
101	There is no separate documentation for wxBase, please refer to wxWindows
102	documentation instead.
103
104	Support for wxBase is available from the same places as for wxWindows itself,
105	namely:
106
107	* Usenet newsgroup comp.soft-sys.wxwindows
108
109	* Mailing lists: see http://lists.wxwindows.org/ for more information
110
111	* WWW page: http://www.wxwindows.org/
112
113
114	Hope you will find wxBase useful!
115
116	Vadim Zeitlin
117
118
119	This file is accurate for the version 2.3.2 of wxBase. It was last modified on
120	Dec 11, 2001.
2224580a	121