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	4	<TITLE>wxWindows 2 FAQ: General</TITLE>
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	15	<b>wxWindows 2 FAQ: General</b>
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	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="#whatis">What is wxWindows?</a></li>
	28	<li><a href="#users">Who uses wxWindows?</a></li>
	29	<li><a href="#platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWindows 2?</a></li>
	30	<li><a href="#specific">How does wxWindows 2 support platform-specific features?</a></li>
	31	<li><a href="#stl">Does wxWindows use STL? or the standard string class?</a></li>
	32	<li><a href="#richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWindows 2?</a></ li>
	33	<li><a href="#exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWindows?</a></ li>
	34	<li><a href="#dev">How is wxWindows 2 being developed?</a></li>
	35	<li><a href="#distrib">How is wxWindows 2 distributed?</a></li>
	36	<li><a href="#future">What are the plans for the future?</a></li>
	37	<li><a href="#univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></li>
	38	<li><a href="#jave">What about Java?</a></li>
	39	<li><a href="#help">How can I help the project?</a></li>
	40	</ul>
	41	<hr>
	42
	43	<H3><a name="whatis">What is wxWindows?</a></H3>
	44
	45	wxWindows is a class library that allows you to compile graphical C++ programs on a range of
	46	different platforms. wxWindows defines a common API across platforms, but uses the native graphical user interface (GUI) on each platform,
	47	so your program will take on the native 'look and feel' that users are familiar with.<P>
	48
	49	Although GUI applications are mostly built programmatically, there is a dialog editor to help
	50	build attractive dialogs and panels. Robert Roebling's <a href="http://www.roebling.com">wxDesigner</a>
	51	makes light work of resizable, portable dialogs.<P>
	52
	53	You don't have to use C++ to use wxWindows: there is a <a href="http://wxpython.org">Python interface</a> for wxWindows 2,
	54	and also a <a href="http://wxperl.sourceforge.net" target=_top>Perl interface</a>.
	55	<P>
	56
	57	<h3>Can I use wxWindows 2 for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL'ed projects?</h3>
	58
	59	Yes. Please see the <a href="newlicen.htm">licence</a> for details, but basically
	60	you can distribute proprietary binaries without distributing any source code, and neither will wxWindows
	61	conflict with GPL code you may be using or developing with it.
	62	<P>
	63	The conditions for using wxWindows 2 are the same whether you are a personal, academic
	64	or commercial developer.
	65	<P>
	66
	67	<h3>Is there support?</h3>
	68
	69	No official support, but the mailing list is very helpful and some people say that
	70	wxWindows support is better than for much commercial software. The developers are
	71	keen to fix bugs as soon as possible, though obviously there are no guarantees.
	72	<P>
	73
	74	<H3><a name="users">Who uses wxWindows?</a></H3>
	75
	76	Many organisations - commercial, government, and academic - across the
	77	world. It's impossible to estimate the true number of users, since
	78	wxWindows is obtained by many different means, and we cannot monitor
	79	distribution. The mailing list contains around 300-400 entries which is
	80	quite large for a list of this type.<P>
	81
	82	See <a href="users.htm">Users</a> for a list of some users and their applications, and
	83	also <A href="feedback.htm">Feedback</a> for comments.<P>
	84
	85	<H3><a name="platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWindows 2?</a></H3>
	86
	87	<ul>
	88	<li>Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME.
	89	<li>Linux and other Unix platforms with GTK+.
	90	<li>Unix with Motif or the free Motif clone Lesstif.
	91	<li>Mac OS.
	92	<li>Embedded platforms are being investigated. See the <a href="wxuniv.htm">wxUniversal</a> project.
	93	<li>An OS/2 port is in progress, and you can also compile wxWindows for GTK+ or Motif
	94	on OS/2.
	95	</ul>
	96	<P>
	97
	98	<H3><a name="specific">How does wxWindows 2 support platform-specific
	99	features?</a></H3>
	100
	101	This is a hotly-debated topic amongst the developers. My own philosophy
	102	is to make wxWindows as platform-independent as possible, but allow in a
	103	few classes (functions, window styles) that are platform-specific.
	104	For example, Windows metafiles and Windows 95 taskbar icons have
	105	their own classes on Windows, but nowhere else. Because these classes
	106	are provided and are wxWindows-compatible, it doesn't take much
	107	coding effort for an application programmer to add support for
	108	some functionality that the user on a particular platform might otherwise
	109	miss. Also, some classes that started off as platform-specific, such
	110	as the MDI classes, have been emulated on other platforms. I can imagine
	111	that even wxTaskBarIcon may be implemented for Unix desktops one day.
	112	<P>
	113
	114	In other words, wxWindows is not a 'lowest common denominator' approach,
	115	but it will still be possible to write portable programs using the
	116	core API. Forbidding some platform-specific classes would be a stupid
	117	approach that would alienate many potential users, and encourage
	118	the perception that toolkits such as wxWindows are not up to the demands
	119	of today's sophisticated applications.<P>
	120
	121	Currently resources such as bitmaps and icons are handled in a platform-specific
	122	way, but it is hoped to reduce this dependence in due course.<P>
	123
	124	Another reason why wxWindows 2 is not a 'lowest common denominator' toolkit is that
	125	some functionality missing on some platform has been provided using generic,
	126	platform-independent code, such as the wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl classes.<P>
	127
	128	<H3><a name="stl">Does wxWindows use STL? or the standard string class?</a></H3>
	129
	130	No. This is a much-discussed topic that has (many times) ended with the conclusion that it is in
	131	wxWindows' best interests to avoid use of templates. Not all compilers can handle
	132	templates adequately so it would dramatically reduce the number of compilers
	133	and platforms that could be supported. It would also be undesirable to make
	134	wxWindows dependent on another large library that may have to be downloaded and installed.
	135	In addition, use of templates can lead to executable bloat, which is something
	136	wxWindows 2 is strenuously trying to avoid.<P>
	137
	138	The standard C++ string class is not used, again because it is not available to all compilers,
	139	and it is not necessarily a very efficient implementation. Also, we retain more flexibility
	140	by being able to modify our own string class. Some compatibility with the string class
	141	has been built into wxString.<P>
	142
	143	There is nothing to stop an application using templates or the string class for its own
	144	purposes. With wxWindows debugging options on, you may find you get errors when including
	145	STL headers. You can work around it either by switching off memory checking,
	146	or by adding this to a header before you include any STL files:<P>
	147
	148	<PRE>
	149	#ifdef new
	150	#undef new
	151	#endif
	152	</PRE>
	153
	154	<P>
	155
	156
	157	<H3><a name="richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWindows 2?</a></H3>
	158
	159	These are the possibilities so far:<P>
	160
	161	<ul>
	162	<li>The richedit sample has a text editor that does markup.
	163	<li>See <a href="http://www.scintilla.org" target=_top>www.scintilla.org</a> for
	164	a very nice syntax-highlighting editor widget. Robin Dunn is writing a wxWindows wrapper
	165	for this widget.
	166	<li>If you only need to display marked-up information, rather than edit it,
	167	then wxHTML will suit your needs. wxHTML is built into wxWindows - please see the reference
	168	manual for details, and samples/html.
	169	<li>There are rich edit widgets in both WIN32 and GTK+, but there is currently
	170	no wxWindows wrapper for these (but text attribute functions are being added in the wxWindows 2.3.x series).
	171	</ul>
	172
	173	<P>
	174
	175	<h3><a name="exceptions">How to use C++ exceptions with wxWindows?</a></h3>
	176
	177	wxWindows library itself is unfortunately <i>not</i> exception-safe (as its
	178	initial version predates, by far, the addition of the exceptions to the C++
	179	language). However you can still use the exceptions in your own code and use
	180	the other libraries using the exceptions for the error reporting together with
	181	wxWindows.
	182
	183	<p>
	184	There are a few issues to keep in mind, though:
	185	<ul>
	186	<li>You shouldn't let the exceptions propagate through wxWindows code,
	187	in particular you should always catch the exceptions thrown by the
	188	functions called from an event handler in the handler itself and not
	189	let them propagate upwards to wxWindows.
	190
	191	<li>You may need to ensure that the compiler support for the exceptions is
	192	enabled as, considering that wxWindows itself doesn't use the
	193	exceptions and turning their support on results in the library size
	194	augmentation of 10% to 20%, it is turned off by default for a few
	195	compilers. Moreover, for gcc (or at least its mingw version) you must
	196	also turn on the RTTI support to be able to use the exceptions, so you
	197	should use <tt>--disable-no_rtti --disable-no_exceptions</tt> options
	198	when configuring the library (attention to the double negation).
	199	</ul>
	200
	201	<p>
	202
	203	<H3><a name="dev">How is wxWindows 2 being developed?</a></H3>
	204
	205	We are using the <a href="cvs.htm">CVS</a> system to develop and maintain wxWindows. This allows
	206	us to make alterations and upload them instantly to the SourceForge server, from
	207	which others can update their source.<P>
	208
	209	To build source from CVS, see the file BuildCVS.txt in the top-level wxWindows distribution
	210	directory.<P>
	211
	212	<H3><a name="distrib">How is wxWindows 2 distributed?</a></H3>
	213
	214	By ftp, and via the <a href="cdrom2.htm">wxWindows CD-ROM</a>.
	215	<P>
	216	If you are feeling adventurous, you may also check out the sources directly
	217	from the <a href="cvs.htm">cvs</a>
	218	<p>
	219
	220	<H3><a name="future">What are the plans for the future?</a></H3>
	221
	222	Currently we're working too hard on getting wxWindows 2 finished (are GUI toolkits ever
	223	finished?) to think very far ahead. However, we know we want to make wxWindows as robust
	224	and well-publicised as possible. We also want to aim for better platform-independence of
	225	resources such as icons and bitmaps, standardising on the PNG for all platforms.<P>
	226
	227	Other possibilities include: DCOM/CORBA compatibility; a wxWindows book;
	228	<a href="http://wxworkshop.sourceforge.net/">wxWorkshop</a>, an IDE;
	229	other platforms, especially embedded systems; other interface abilities such as speech output.<P>
	230
	231	We will investigate the possibility of compiler or operating system vendors bundling wxWindows with
	232	their product.<P>
	233
	234	The high-level goal of wxWindows is to be thought of as the number one C++ framework,
	235	for virtually any platform. Move over, MFC!<P>
	236
	237	<H3><a name="univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></H3>
	238
	239	wxUniversal is a new port of wxWindows being currently actively developed. The
	240	main difference is that wxUniversal implements all controls (or widgets) in
	241	wxWindows itself thus allowing to have much more flexibility (i.e. support for
	242	themes even under MS Windows!). It also means that it is now much easier to
	243	port wxWindows to a new platform as only the low-level classes must be ported
	244	which make for a small part of the library.
	245	<p>
	246	You may find more about wxUniversal <a href=wxuniv.htm>here</a>.
	247
	248	<H3><a name="jave">What about Java?</a></H3>
	249
	250	The Java honeymoon period is over :-) and people are realising that it cannot
	251	meet all their cross-platform development needs. We don't anticipate a major threat
	252	from Java, and the level of interest in wxWindows is as high as ever.<P>
	253
	254	<H3><a name="help">How can I help the project?</a></H3>
	255
	256	Please check out the <a href="http://www.wxwindows.org/develop2.htm">Community</a> pages,
	257	in particular the <a href="projects.htm">suggested projects</a>, and
	258	mail <a href="mailto:julian.smart@btopenworld.com">Julian Smart</a> or the developers' mailing list with your own suggestions.<P>
	259
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