docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.5.3
   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 wxWidgets, 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 wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:
  39
  40 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Pocket PC
  41 - Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1 and GTK+ 2
  42 - Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
  43 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  44 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.3 and above preferred)
  45 - MacOS 10.x using Cocoa (beta)
  46 - OS/2 (beta)
  47
  48 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  49 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  50 See also http://www.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
  51
  52 Files
  53 -----
  54
  55 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  56 target system. See the download pages for details.
  57
  58 Installation
  59 ------------
  60
  61 wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
  62 or write your own applications. For installation information, please
  63 see the install.txt file in the individual directories:
  64
  65   docs/msw
  66   docs/gtk
  67   docs/motif
  68   docs/mac
  69   docs/cocoa
  70   docs/x11
  71   docs/mgl
  72   docs/os2
  73
  74 Licence information
  75 -------------------
  76
  77 For licensing information, please see the files:
  78
  79   docs/preamble.txt
  80   docs/licence.txt
  81   docs/licendoc.txt
  82   docs/gpl.txt
  83   docs/lgpl.txt
  84
  85 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
  86 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in
  87 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
  88 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
  89 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
  90 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
  91 commercial applications using wxWidgets.
  92
  93 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
  94 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
  95 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
  96 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
  97 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
  98 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
  99 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 100 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 101 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 102 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWidgets library will
 103 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 104
 105 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 106 for libtiff licence details.
 107
 108 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 109 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 110 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 111
 112 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 113 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 114 regular expression library copyright.
 115
 116 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 117
 118 Documentation
 119 -------------
 120
 121 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 122
 123 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets.
 124
 125 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 126
 127 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 128
 129   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 130
 131 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 132 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 133
 134 Further information
 135 -------------------
 136
 137 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 138
 139   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 140
 141 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 142
 143   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 144
 145 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 146 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 147 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 148 web site.
 149
 150 Have fun!
 151
 152 The wxWidgets Team, October 2004
 153