git.saurik.com Git - wxWidgets.git/blame_incremental

... / ...

Commit	Line	Data
	1	<HTML>
	2
	3	<HEAD>
	4	<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
	5	</HEAD>
	6
	7	<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 VLINK="#00376A" LINK="#00529C" ALINK="#313063">
	8
	9	<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
	10
	11	<table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
	12	<tr>
	13	<td bgcolor="#004080" align=left height=24 background="images/bluetitlegradient.gif">
	14	<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
	15	<b>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</b>
	16	</font>
	17	</td>
	18	</tr>
	19	</table>
	20
	21	<P>
	22
	23	See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
	24	<hr>
	25	<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
	26	<ul>
	27	<li><a href="#platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></li>
	28	<li><a href="#wince">What about Windows CE?</a></li>
	29	<li><a href="#winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></li>
	30	<li><a href="#compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></li>
	31	<li><a href="#bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></li>
	32	<li><a href="#unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></li>
	33	<li><a href="#doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></li>
	34	<li><a href="#dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></li>
	35	<li><a href="#exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></li>
	36	<li><a href="#mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></li>
	37	<li><a href="#asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</a></li>
	38	<li><a href="#newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></li>
	39	<li><a href="#mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></li>
	40	<li><a href="#crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></li>
	41	<li><a href="#makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></li>
	42	<li><a href="#vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></li>
	43	<li><a href="#shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></li>
	44	<li><a href="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></li>
	45	</ul>
	46	<hr>
	47
	48	<h3><a name="platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></h3>
	49
	50	wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
	51	Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. A Windows CE
	52	version is being looked into (see below).<P>
	53
	54	wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
	55	we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
	56	work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
	57	However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
	58	class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
	59	makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
	60	<P>
	61	16-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
	62	<P>
	63
	64	wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
	65	although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
	66	Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>
	67
	68	You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
	69	in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
	70	using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
	71	programs with TWIN32, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
	72	without ever needing a copy of Microsoft Windows. See the Technical Note on the Web site detailing cross-compilation.<P>
	73
	74	<h3><a name="wince">What about Windows CE?</a></h3>
	75
	76	This is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
	77	There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
	78	as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
	79	by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
	80	and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
	81	the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
	82	storage should not be a problem.<P>
	83
	84	<h3><a name="winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></h3>
	85
	86	In the same directory as you have your executable (e.g. foo.exe) you
	87	put a file called foo.exe.manifest in which you have something like
	88	the following:
	89
	90	<pre>
	91	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
	92	<assembly
	93	xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"
	94	manifestVersion="1.0">
	95	<assemblyIdentity
	96	processorArchitecture="x86"
	97	version="5.1.0.0"
	98	type="win32"
	99	name="foo.exe"/>
	100	<description>Foo program</description>
	101	<dependency>
	102	<dependentAssembly>
	103	<assemblyIdentity
	104	type="win32"
	105	name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
	106	version="6.0.0.0"
	107	publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
	108	language="*"
	109	processorArchitecture="x86"/>
	110	</dependentAssembly>
	111	</dependency>
	112	</assembly>
	113	</pre>
	114
	115	<h3><a name="compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></h3>
	116
	117	Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
	118	currently the following are known to work:<P>
	119
	120	<ul>
	121	<li>Visual C++ 1.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
	122	<li>Borland C++ 4.5, 5.0
	123	<li>Borland C++Builder 1.0, 3.0
	124	<li>Watcom C++ 10.6 (WIN32)
	125	<li>Cygwin b20
	126	<li>Mingw32
	127	<li>MetroWerks CodeWarrior 4
	128	</ul>
	129	<P>
	130
	131	There is a linking problem with Symantec C++ which I hope someone can help solve.
	132	<P>
	133
	134	<h3><a name="bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></h3>
	135
	136	It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
	137	good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
	138	Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
	139	for wxWindows samples.<P>
	140
	141	Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
	142	the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>
	143
	144	C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
	145	own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
	146	it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>
	147
	148	You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
	149	quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>
	150
	151	CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
	152	the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>
	153
	154	Watcom C++ is a little slow and the debugger is not really up to today's standards.<P>
	155
	156	Among the free compilers the best choice seem to be Borland C++ command line
	157	tools and mingw32 (port of gcc to Win32). Both of them are supported by
	158	wxWindows.
	159
	160	<h3><a name="unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></h3>
	161
	162	Yes, Unicode is fully supported under Windows NT/2000 (Windows 9x don't
	163	have Unicode support anyhow).
	164
	165	<h3><a name="doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></h3>
	166
	167	An answer from <a href="mailto:goedde@logosoft.de">Klaus Goedde</a>:<p>
	168
	169	"For Japanese under Win2000, it seems that wxWindows has no problems to work with double byte char sets
	170	(I mean DBCS, that's not Unicode). First you have to install Japanese support on your Win2K system
	171	and choose for ANSI translation
	172	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage=932 (default is 1252 for Western).
	173	Then you can see all the funny Japanese letters under wxWindows too.<P>
	174
	175	In a wxTextCtrl control you have to set the window style "wxTE_RICH", otherwise this control shows the wrong
	176	letters.
	177
	178	I don't now whether it works on non W2K systems, because I'm just starting using wxWindows."
	179	<P>
	180
	181	<h3><a name="dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></h3>
	182
	183	Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
	184	and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
	185	delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
	186	and have limited hard disk space.<P>
	187
	188	With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
	189	needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
	190	negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
	191	wxWindows!
	192	<P>
	193
	194	<h3><a name="exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></h3>
	195
	196	You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
	197	compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
	198	take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>
	199
	200	Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
	201	wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
	202	techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
	203	indirectly) referenced
	204	by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 300KB using VC++ 6.<P>
	205
	206	If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
	207	use <a href="http://www.un4seen.com/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
	208	by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
	209	will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
	210	use DLLs. Another good compression tool is <a href="http://upx.sourceforge.net/" target=_top>UPX</a>.
	211	<P>
	212
	213	<H3><a name="mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></H3>
	214
	215	There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
	216	application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
	217	functionality using MFC.<P>
	218
	219	<H3><a name="asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</H3>
	220
	221	If you get errors like
	222	<p>
	223	<center>
	224	<tt>no matching function for call to 'wxDC::DrawTextA(const char[5], int,
	225	int)'</tt>
	226	</center>
	227	<p>
	228	or similar ones for the other functions, i.e. the compiler error messages
	229	mention the function with the <tt>'A'</tt> suffix while you didn't
	230	use it in your code, the explanation is that you had included
	231	<tt><windows.h></tt> header which redefines many symbols to have such
	232	suffix (or <tt>'W'</tt> in the Unicode builds).
	233
	234	<p>
	235	The fix is to either not include <tt><windows.h></tt> at all or include
	236	<tt>"wx/msw/winundef.h"</tt> immediately after it.
	237
	238	<H3><a name="newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></H3>
	239
	240	The most common cause of this problem is the memory debugging settings in
	241	<tt>wx/msw/setup.h</tt>. You have several choices:
	242
	243	<ul>
	244	<li> Either disable overloading the global operator new completely by
	245	setting <tt>wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS</tt> and
	246	<tt>wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS</tt> to 0 in this file
	247	<li> Or leave them on but do <tt>#undef new</tt> after including any
	248	wxWindows headers, like this the memory debugging will be still on
	249	for wxWindows sources but off for your own code
	250	</ul>
	251
	252	Notice that IMHO the first solution is preferable for VC++ users who can use
	253	the <a href="#vcdebug">VC++ CRT memory debugging features</a> instead.
	254
	255	<H3><a name="mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></H3>
	256
	257	Set up your interface from scratch using wxWindows (especially wxDesigner --
	258	it'll save you a <i>lot</i> of time) and when you have a shell prepared, you can start
	259	'pouring in' code from the MFC app, with appropriate
	260	modifications. This is the approach I have used, and I found
	261	it very satisfactory. A two-step process then - reproduce the bare
	262	interface first, then wire it up afterwards. That way you deal
	263	with each area of complexity separately. Don't try to think MFC
	264	and wxWindows simultaneously from the beginning - it is easier to
	265	reproduce the initial UI by looking at the behaviour of the MFC
	266	app, not its code.
	267
	268	<H3><a name="crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></H3>
	269
	270	Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
	271	options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
	272	If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
	273	check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
	274	if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
	275	symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
	276	the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>
	277
	278	VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
	279	cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
	280	Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
	281	switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
	282	larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
	283	strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
	284	optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
	285	Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
	286	Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>
	287
	288	<H3><a name="makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></H3>
	289
	290	As of wxWindows 2.1, there is a new system written by Vadim Zeitlin, that
	291	generates the makefiles from templates using tmake.<P>
	292
	293	Here are Vadim's notes:<P>
	294
	295	<blockquote>
	296	To use these new makefiles, you don't need anything (but see below).
	297	However, you should NOT modify them because these files will be
	298	rewritten when I regenerate them using tmake the next time. So, if
	299	you find a problem with any of these makefiles (say, makefile.b32)
	300	you'll need to modify the corresponding template (b32.t in this
	301	example) and regenerate the makefile using tmake.<P>
	302
	303	tmake can be found at
	304	<a href="http://www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html" target=_new>www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html</a>.
	305	It's a Perl5 program and so it needs Perl (doh). There is a binary for
	306	Windows (available from the same page), but I haven't used it, so
	307	I don't know if it works as flawlessly as "perl tmake" does (note
	308	for people knowing Perl: don't try to run tmake with -w, it won't
	309	do you any good). Using it extremely simple: to regenerate makefile.b32
	310	just go to distrib/msw/tmake and type<P>
	311
	312	<pre>tmake -t b32 wxwin.pro -o ../../src/msw/makefile.b32</pre><P>
	313
	314	The makefiles are untested - I don't have any of Borland, Watcom or
	315	Symantec and I don't have enough diskspace to recompile even with
	316	VC6 using makefiles. The new makefiles are as close as possible to the
	317	old ones, but not closer: in fact, there has been many strange things
	318	(should I say bugs?) in some of makefiles, some files were not compiled
	319	without any reason etc. Please test them and notify me about any problems.
	320	Better yet, modify the template files to generate the correct makefiles
	321	and check them in.<P>
	322
	323	The templates are described in tmake ref manual (1-2 pages of text)
	324	and are quite simple. They do contain some Perl code, but my Perl is
	325	primitive (very C like) so it should be possible for anybody to make
	326	trivial modifications to it (I hope that only trivial modifications
	327	will be needed). I've tagged the ol makefiles as MAKEFILES_WITHOUT_TMAKE
	328	in the cvs, so you can always retrieve them and compare the new ones,
	329	this will make it easier to solve the problems you might have.<P>
	330
	331	Another important file is filelist.txt: it contains the list of all
	332	files to be compiled. Some of them are only compiled in 16/32 bit mode.
	333	Some other are only compiled with some compilers (others can't compile
	334	them) - all this info is contained in this file.<P>
	335
	336	So now adding a new file to wxWindows is as easy as modifying filelist.txt
	337	(and Makefile.ams for Unix ports) and regenerating the makefiles - no
	338	need to modify all files manually any more.<P>
	339
	340	Finally, there is also a file vc6.t which I use myself: this one
	341	generates a project file for VC++ 6.0 (I didn't create vc5.t because
	342	I don't need it and can't test it, but it should be trivial to create
	343	one from vc6.t - probably the only things to change would be the
	344	version number in the very beginning and the /Z option - VC5 doesn't
	345	support edit-and=continue). This is not an officially supported way
	346	of building wxWindows (that is, nobody guarantees that it will work),
	347	but it has been very useful to me and I hope it will be also for
	348	others. To generate wxWindows.dsp run<P>
	349
	350	<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWindows.dsp</pre><P>
	351
	352	Then just include this project in any workspace or open it from VC IDE
	353	and it will create a new workspace for you.<P>
	354
	355	If all goes well, I'm planning to create a template file for Makefile.ams
	356	under src/gtk and src/motif and also replace all makefiles in the samples
	357	subdirectories with the project files from which all the others will be
	358	generated. At least it will divide the number of files in samples
	359	directory by 10 (and the number of files to be maintained too).
	360	</blockquote>
	361
	362	<P>
	363
	364	<H3><a name="vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></H3>
	365
	366	Vadim Zeitlin:
	367
	368	<pre>
	369	On the VC++ level, it's just the matter of calling _CrtSetDbgFlag() in the very
	370	beginning of the program. In wxWindows, this is done automatically when
	371	compiling with VC++ in debug mode unless wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS or
	372	__NO_VC_CRTDBG__ are defined - this check is done in wx/msw/msvcrt.h which
	373	is included from app.cpp which then calls wxCrtSetDbgFlag() without any
	374	ifdefs.
	375
	376	This works quite well: at the end of the program, all leaked blocks with their
	377	malloc count are shown. This number (malloc count) can be used to determine
	378	where exactly the object was allocated: for this it's enough to set the variable
	379	_crtBreakAlloc (look in VC98\crt\srs\dbgheap.c line 326) to this number and
	380	a breakpoint will be triggered when the block with this number is allocated.
	381
	382	For simple situations it works like a charm. For something more complicated
	383	like reading uninitialized memory a specialized tool is probably better...
	384
	385	Regards,
	386	VZ
	387	</pre>
	388
	389	<P>
	390
	391	<H3><a name="shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></H3>
	392
	393	This can happen if you have a child window intercepting EVT_CHAR events and swallowing
	394	all keyboard input. You should ensure that event.Skip() is called for all input that
	395	isn'used by the event handler.
	396
	397	<H3><a name="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></H3>
	398
	399	Currently this is not possible because the wxConfig family of classes is
	400	supposed to deal with per-user application configuration data, and HKLM is
	401	only supposed to be writeable by a user with Administrator privileges. In theory,
	402	only installers should write to HKLM. This is still a point debated by the
	403	wxWindows developers. There are at least two ways to work around it if you really
	404	need to write to HKLM.<P>
	405
	406	First, you can use wxRegKey directly, for example:
	407
	408	<pre>
	409	wxRegKey regKey;
	410
	411	wxString idName(wxT("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\"));
	412	idName += packid;
	413
	414	regKey.SetName(idName);
	415
	416	{
	417	wxLogNull dummy;
	418	if (!regKey.Create())
	419	{
	420	idName = wxT("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\");
	421	idName += packid;
	422	regKey.SetName(idName);
	423	if (!regKey.Create())
	424	return FALSE;
	425	}
	426	}
	427
	428	if (!regKey.SetValue(wxT("THING"), (long) thing)) err += 1;
	429
	430	regKey.Close();
	431
	432	</pre>
	433
	434	Or, you can employ this trick suggested by Istvan Kovacs:
	435
	436	<pre>
	437	class myGlobalConfig : public wxConfig
	438	{
	439	myGlobalConfig() :
	440	wxConfig ("myApp", "myCompany", "", "", wxCONFIG_USE_GLOBAL_FILE)
	441	{};
	442	bool Write(const wxString& key, const wxString& value);
	443	}
	444
	445	bool myGlobalConfig::Write (const wxString& key, const wxString& value)
	446	{
	447	wxString path = wxString ("SOFTWARE\\myCompany\\myApp\\") + wxPathOnly(key);
	448	wxString new_path = path.Replace ("/", "\\", true);
	449	wxString new_key = wxFileNameFromPath (key);
	450	LocalKey().SetName (wxRegKey::HKLM, path);
	451	return wxConfig::Write (new_key, value);
	452	}
	453	</pre>
	454
	455	</font>
	456
	457	</BODY>
	458
	459	</HTML>