docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.6.0
   2 ---------------
   3
   4 Welcome to wxWidgets, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
   5 framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where
   6 possible) the native controls.
   7
   8 In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as
   9 frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons,
  10 device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are
  11 wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing
  12 TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain
  13 features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree
  14 controls on Unix, they are emulated.
  15
  16 A detailed 2000-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
  17 and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
  18
  19 For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm
  20 for a list of important documents and samples.
  21
  22 Changes in this release
  23 -----------------------
  24
  25 Please see changes.txt for details.
  26
  27 Platforms supported
  28 -------------------
  29
  30 wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:
  31
  32 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Pocket PC
  33 - Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1 and GTK+ 2
  34 - Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
  35 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  36 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.3 and above preferred)
  37 - MacOS 10.x using Cocoa (beta)
  38 - OS/2 (beta)
  39
  40 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  41 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  42 See also http://www.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
  43
  44 Files
  45 -----
  46
  47 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  48 target system. See the download pages for details.
  49
  50 Installation
  51 ------------
  52
  53 wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
  54 or write your own applications. For installation information, please
  55 see the install.txt file in the individual directories:
  56
  57   docs/msw
  58   docs/gtk
  59   docs/motif
  60   docs/mac
  61   docs/cocoa
  62   docs/x11
  63   docs/mgl
  64   docs/os2
  65
  66 Licence information
  67 -------------------
  68
  69 For licensing information, please see the files:
  70
  71   docs/preamble.txt
  72   docs/licence.txt
  73   docs/licendoc.txt
  74   docs/gpl.txt
  75   docs/lgpl.txt
  76
  77 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
  78 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in
  79 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
  80 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
  81 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
  82 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
  83 commercial applications using wxWidgets.
  84
  85 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
  86 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
  87 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
  88 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
  89 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
  90 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
  91 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
  92 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
  93 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
  94 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWidgets library will
  95 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
  96
  97 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
  98 for libtiff licence details.
  99
 100 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 101 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 102 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 103
 104 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 105 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 106 regular expression library copyright.
 107
 108 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 109
 110 Documentation
 111 -------------
 112
 113 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 114
 115 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets.
 116
 117 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 118
 119 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 120
 121   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 122
 123 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 124 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 125
 126 Further information
 127 -------------------
 128
 129 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 130
 131   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 132
 133 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 134
 135   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 136
 137 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 138 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 139 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 140 web site.
 141
 142 Have fun!
 143
 144 The wxWidgets Team, April 2005
 145