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4<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
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15wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ
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21<P>
22
23See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
24<hr>
25
b953bdc2 26<h3>Which Windows platforms are supported?</h3>
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0bc9b25e 28wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
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29Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. A Windows CE version is being looked into (see below).<P>
30
31wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
32we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
ce3ed50d 33work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
0bc9b25e 34However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
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35class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
36makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
37<P>
3816-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
39<P>
40
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41wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
42although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
43Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>
44
45You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
46in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
47using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
48programs with TWIN32, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
49without 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
53This is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
54There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
55as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
56by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
57and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
58the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
59storage should not be a problem.<P>
60
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61<h3>What compilers are supported?</h3>
62
63Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
64currently 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
77There 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
82It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
83good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
84Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
85for wxWindows samples.<P>
86
87Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
88the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>
89
90C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
91own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
92it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>
93
94You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
95quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>
96
97CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
98the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>
99
100Watcom 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 104Not yet, although there are other internationalisation features.<P>
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105
106However, the issues surrounding Unicode support have been looked into so we know
107what we need to do, and have some header files ready to use containing appropriate
108type definitions. Just about every file in wxWindows will need changes, due to the
109pervasive nature of characters and character arrays. Unicode support is needed
0bc9b25e 110for 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>
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9838df2c 114Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
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115and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
116delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
117and have limited hard disk space.<P>
118
119With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
120needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
121negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
122wxWindows!
123<P>
124
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125<H3>How can I reduce executable size?</H3>
126
127You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
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128compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
129take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>
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130
131Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
132wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
133techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
134indirectly) referenced
135by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 300KB using VC++ 6.<P>
136
137If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
138use <a href="http://www.icl.ndirect.co.uk/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
139by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
140will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
141use DLLs.<P>
142
0bc9b25e 143<H3>Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</H3>
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144
145There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
146application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
147functionality using MFC.<P>
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149<H3>Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</H3>
150
151Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
152options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
153If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
154check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
155if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
156symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
157the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>
158
159VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
160cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
161Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
162switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
163larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
164strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
165optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
166Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
167Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>
168
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169<H3>How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</H3>
170
171As of wxWindows 2.1, there is a new system written by Vadim Zeitlin, that
172generates the makefiles from templates using tmake.<P>
173
174Here are Vadim's notes:<P>
175
176<blockquote>
177To use these new makefiles, you don't need anything (but see below).
178However, you should NOT modify them because these files will be
179rewritten when I regenerate them using tmake the next time. So, if
180you find a problem with any of these makefiles (say, makefile.b32)
181you'll need to modify the corresponding template (b32.t in this
182example) and regenerate the makefile using tmake.<P>
183
184tmake can be found at
185<a href="http://www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html" target=_new>www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html</a>.
186It's a Perl5 program and so it needs Perl (doh). There is a binary for
187Windows (available from the same page), but I haven't used it, so
188I don't know if it works as flawlessly as "perl tmake" does (note
189for people knowing Perl: don't try to run tmake with -w, it won't
190do you any good). Using it extremely simple: to regenerate makefile.b32
191just go to distrib/msw/tmake and type<P>
192
193<pre>tmake -t b32 wxwin.pro -o ../../src/msw/makefile.b32</pre><P>
194
195The makefiles are untested - I don't have any of Borland, Watcom or
196Symantec and I don't have enough diskspace to recompile even with
197VC6 using makefiles. The new makefiles are as close as possible to the
198old ones, but not closer: in fact, there has been many strange things
199(should I say bugs?) in some of makefiles, some files were not compiled
200without any reason etc. Please test them and notify me about any problems.
201Better yet, modify the template files to generate the correct makefiles
202and check them in.<P>
203
204The templates are described in tmake ref manual (1-2 pages of text)
205and are quite simple. They do contain some Perl code, but my Perl is
206primitive (very C like) so it should be possible for anybody to make
207trivial modifications to it (I hope that only trivial modifications
208will be needed). I've tagged the ol makefiles as MAKEFILES_WITHOUT_TMAKE
209in the cvs, so you can always retrieve them and compare the new ones,
210this will make it easier to solve the problems you might have.<P>
211
212Another important file is filelist.txt: it contains the list of all
213files to be compiled. Some of them are only compiled in 16/32 bit mode.
214Some other are only compiled with some compilers (others can't compile
215them) - all this info is contained in this file.<P>
216
217So now adding a new file to wxWindows is as easy as modifying filelist.txt
218(and Makefile.ams for Unix ports) and regenerating the makefiles - no
219need to modify all files manually any more.<P>
220
221 Finally, there is also a file vc6.t which I use myself: this one
222generates a project file for VC++ 6.0 (I didn't create vc5.t because
223I don't need it and can't test it, but it should be trivial to create
224one from vc6.t - probably the only things to change would be the
225version number in the very beginning and the /Z option - VC5 doesn't
226support edit-and=continue). This is not an officially supported way
227of building wxWindows (that is, nobody guarantees that it will work),
228but it has been very useful to me and I hope it will be also for
229others. To generate wxWindows.dsp run<P>
230
231<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWindows.dsp</pre><P>
232
233Then just include this project in any workspace or open it from VC IDE
234and it will create a new workspace for you.<P>
235
236If all goes well, I'm planning to create a template file for Makefile.ams
237under src/gtk and src/motif and also replace all makefiles in the samples
238subdirectories with the project files from which all the others will be
239generated. At least it will divide the number of files in samples
240directory by 10 (and the number of files to be maintained too).
241</blockquote>
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243<P>
244
245<H3>How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</H3>
246
247Vadim Zeitlin:
248
249<pre>
250On the VC++ level, it's just the matter of calling _CrtSetDbgFlag() in the very
251beginning of the program. In wxWindows, this is done automatically when
252compiling with VC++ in debug mode unless wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS or
253__NO_VC_CRTDBG__ are defined - this check is done in wx/msw/msvcrt.h which
254is included from app.cpp which then calls wxCrtSetDbgFlag() without any
255#ifdefs.
256
257This works quite well: at the end of the program, all leaked blocks with their
258malloc count are shown. This number (malloc count) can be used to determine
259where exactly the object was allocated: for this it's enough to set the variable
260_crtBreakAlloc (look in VC98\crt\srs\dbgheap.c line 326) to this number and
261a breakpoint will be triggered when the block with this number is allocated.
262
263For simple situations it works like a charm. For something more complicated
264like reading uninitialized memory a specialized tool is probably better...
265
266Regards,
267VZ
268</pre>
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