docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.5.1
   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
  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.wxwidgets.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 wxWidgets 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 wxWidgets for X11 and Motif distribution
  72 ----------------------------------------
  73
  74 wxX11-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxX11 and wxMotif source distribution, without
  75                                    documentation.
  76
  77 wxWidgets 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 Tex2RTF binary;
  90 - Life! sample binary.
  91
  92 wxWidgets for MacOS distribution
  93 --------------------------------
  94
  95 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  96                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  97 wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz                 Gzipped tar archive containing all
  98                                    source files (excludes documentation).
  99                                    You might prefer this format if building on
 100                                    MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions.
 101
 102 wxWidgets for OS/2 distribution
 103 -------------------------------
 104
 105 wxOS2-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all source files
 106                                    (excludes documentation)
 107
 108 Documentation files
 109 -------------------
 110
 111 wxWidgets-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 112 wxWidgets-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 113 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 114 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 115 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 116                                    use with the helpview utility)
 117
 118 Installation
 119 ------------
 120
 121 wxWidgets 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 122 the samples or write your own applications.
 123 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 124 in the individual directories:
 125
 126   docs/msw
 127   docs/gtk
 128   docs/motif
 129   docs/mac
 130   docs/x11
 131   docs/mgl
 132   docs/os2
 133
 134 Licence information
 135 -------------------
 136
 137 For licensing information, please see the files:
 138
 139   docs/preamble.txt
 140   docs/licence.txt
 141   docs/licendoc.txt
 142   docs/gpl.txt
 143   docs/lgpl.txt
 144
 145 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 146 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in
 147 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 148 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 149 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 150 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 151 commercial applications using wxWidgets.
 152
 153 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 154 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 155 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 156 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 157 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
 158 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 159 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 160 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 161 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 162 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWidgets library will
 163 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 164
 165 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 166 for libtiff licence details.
 167
 168 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 169 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 170 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 171
 172 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 173 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 174 regular expression library copyright.
 175
 176 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 177
 178
 179 Documentation
 180 -------------
 181
 182 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 183
 184 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets 2.
 185
 186 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 187
 188 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 189
 190   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 191
 192 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 193 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 194
 195 Further information
 196 -------------------
 197
 198 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 199
 200   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 201
 202 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 203
 204   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 205
 206 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 207 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 208 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 209 web site.
 210
 211 Have fun!
 212
 213 The wxWidgets Team, February 2004
 214