docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.5.0
   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 2, 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 Dialog Editor binary;
  90 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  91 - Life! sample binary.
  92
  93 wxWindows for MacOS distribution
  94 --------------------------------
  95
  96 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  97                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  98 wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz                 Gzipped tar archive containing all
  99                                    source files (excludes documentation).
 100                                    You might prefer this format if building on
 101                                    MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions.
 102
 103 wxWindows for OS/2 distribution
 104 -------------------------------
 105
 106 wxOS2-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all source files
 107                                    (excludes documentation)
 108
 109 Documentation files
 110 -------------------
 111
 112 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 113 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 114 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 115 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 116 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 117                                    use with the helpview utility)
 118
 119 Installation
 120 ------------
 121
 122 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 123 the samples or write your own applications.
 124 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 125 in the individual directories:
 126
 127   docs/msw
 128   docs/gtk
 129   docs/motif
 130   docs/mac
 131   docs/x11
 132   docs/mgl
 133   docs/os2
 134
 135 Licence information
 136 -------------------
 137
 138 For licensing information, please see the files:
 139
 140   docs/preamble.txt
 141   docs/licence.txt
 142   docs/licendoc.txt
 143   docs/gpl.txt
 144   docs/lgpl.txt
 145
 146 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 147 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 148 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 149 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 150 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 151 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 152 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 153
 154 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 155 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 156 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 157 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 158 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
 159 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 160 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 161 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 162 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 163 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 164 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 165
 166 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 167 for libtiff license details.
 168
 169 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 170 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 171 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 172
 173 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 174 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 175 regular expression library copyright.
 176
 177 Documentation
 178 -------------
 179
 180 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 181
 182 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
 183
 184 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 185
 186 The wxWindows bug database can be browsed at:
 187
 188   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 189
 190 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 191 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 192
 193 Further information
 194 -------------------
 195
 196 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 197
 198   http://www.wxwindows.org
 199
 200 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 201
 202   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 203
 204 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 205 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 206 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
 207 web site.
 208
 209 Have fun!
 210
 211 The wxWindows Team, November 2002
 212