| 1 | wxWindows 2.5.1 |
| 2 | --------------- |
| 3 | |
| 4 | *** Please note that this is an UNSTABLE DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT. |
| 5 | *** Unless you need the new features and bug fixes, you may wish to |
| 6 | *** use the official 2.4.x stable series. You are still encouraged |
| 7 | *** to try the releases from 2.5.x branch, of course, and unstable |
| 8 | *** doesn't mean that they crash all the time -- just that the API |
| 9 | *** may change in backwards incompatible way. If this doesn't frighten |
| 10 | *** you, do try this release and please let us know what you think! |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Welcome to wxWindows, a sophisticated cross-platform C++ |
| 13 | framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where |
| 14 | possible) the native controls. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as |
| 17 | frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons, |
| 18 | device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are |
| 19 | wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing |
| 20 | TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain |
| 21 | features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree |
| 22 | controls on Unix, they are emulated. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | A detailed 1800-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF |
| 25 | and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm |
| 28 | for a list of important documents and samples. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Changes in this release |
| 31 | ----------------------- |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Please see changes.txt for details. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Platforms supported |
| 36 | ------------------- |
| 37 | |
| 38 | wxWindows currently supports the following platforms: |
| 39 | |
| 40 | - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP |
| 41 | - Most Unix variants with GTK+ |
| 42 | - Most Unix variants with X11 |
| 43 | - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif |
| 44 | - MacOS 9.x and 10.x |
| 45 | - OS/2 (alpha) |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt |
| 48 | file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details. |
| 49 | See also http://www.wxwindows.org/platform.htm. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | Files |
| 52 | ----- |
| 53 | |
| 54 | The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the |
| 55 | target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format. |
| 56 | In the following, x.y.z represents the current version number. |
| 57 | |
| 58 | wxWindows for GTK+ distribution |
| 59 | ------------------------------- |
| 60 | |
| 61 | wxGTK-x.y.z.tar.gz wxGTK source distribution. You will |
| 62 | need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation |
| 63 | (see below) |
| 64 | wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tar.gz wxGTK demos source |
| 65 | wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tar.gz wxGTK samples source |
| 66 | wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals |
| 67 | wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals |
| 68 | wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM |
| 69 | wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm Add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM |
| 70 | |
| 71 | wxWindows for X11 and Motif distribution |
| 72 | ---------------------------------------- |
| 73 | |
| 74 | wxX11-x.y.z.tar.gz wxX11 and wxMotif source distribution, without |
| 75 | documentation. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | wxWindows for MS Windows distribution |
| 78 | ------------------------------------- |
| 79 | |
| 80 | setup.exe, setup-*.bin Setup files in floppy-disk-sized chunks |
| 81 | wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip Zip archive containing the |
| 82 | setup files |
| 83 | wxMSW-x.y.z.zip Zip archive containing all the files that are |
| 84 | in the setup distribution |
| 85 | |
| 86 | As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains: |
| 87 | |
| 88 | - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp); |
| 89 | - a Tex2RTF binary; |
| 90 | - Life! sample binary. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | wxWindows for MacOS distribution |
| 93 | -------------------------------- |
| 94 | |
| 95 | wxMac-x.y.z.zip Zip archive containing all |
| 96 | source files (excludes documentation) |
| 97 | wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz Gzipped tar archive containing all |
| 98 | source files (excludes documentation). |
| 99 | You might prefer this format if building on |
| 100 | MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | wxWindows for OS/2 distribution |
| 103 | ------------------------------- |
| 104 | |
| 105 | wxOS2-x.y.z.zip Zip archive containing all source files |
| 106 | (excludes documentation) |
| 107 | |
| 108 | Documentation files |
| 109 | ------------------- |
| 110 | |
| 111 | wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip WinHelp documentation |
| 112 | wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip Acrobat PDF documentation |
| 113 | wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip HTML documentation |
| 114 | wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip Windows HTML Help documentation |
| 115 | wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip wxHTML documentation (for |
| 116 | use with the helpview utility) |
| 117 | |
| 118 | Installation |
| 119 | ------------ |
| 120 | |
| 121 | wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out |
| 122 | the samples or write your own applications. |
| 123 | For installation information, please see the install.txt file |
| 124 | in the individual directories: |
| 125 | |
| 126 | docs/msw |
| 127 | docs/gtk |
| 128 | docs/motif |
| 129 | docs/mac |
| 130 | docs/x11 |
| 131 | docs/mgl |
| 132 | docs/os2 |
| 133 | |
| 134 | Licence information |
| 135 | ------------------- |
| 136 | |
| 137 | For licensing information, please see the files: |
| 138 | |
| 139 | docs/preamble.txt |
| 140 | docs/licence.txt |
| 141 | docs/licendoc.txt |
| 142 | docs/gpl.txt |
| 143 | docs/lgpl.txt |
| 144 | |
| 145 | Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of |
| 146 | proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in |
| 147 | addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary, |
| 148 | the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted |
| 149 | distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you |
| 150 | don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write |
| 151 | commercial applications using wxWindows. |
| 152 | |
| 153 | However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version |
| 154 | of your application, don't forget that it is linked against |
| 155 | GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception |
| 156 | notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked |
| 157 | against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6. |
| 158 | which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications |
| 159 | linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and |
| 160 | include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is |
| 161 | already present in user's system - like glibc usually is). |
| 162 | If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will |
| 163 | contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT |
| 166 | for libtiff licence details. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should |
| 169 | contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of |
| 170 | the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions |
| 173 | support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's |
| 174 | regular expression library copyright. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | |
| 179 | Documentation |
| 180 | ------------- |
| 181 | |
| 182 | See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2. |
| 185 | |
| 186 | See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | The wxWindows bug database can be browsed at: |
| 189 | |
| 190 | http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863 |
| 191 | |
| 192 | The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp. |
| 193 | The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf. |
| 194 | |
| 195 | Further information |
| 196 | ------------------- |
| 197 | |
| 198 | The wxWindows Web site is located at: |
| 199 | |
| 200 | http://www.wxwindows.org |
| 201 | |
| 202 | The main wxWindows ftp site is at: |
| 203 | |
| 204 | ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub |
| 205 | |
| 206 | A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML |
| 207 | front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other |
| 208 | material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows |
| 209 | web site. |
| 210 | |
| 211 | Have fun! |
| 212 | |
| 213 | The wxWindows Team, February 2004 |
| 214 | |