docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.3.0
   2 ---------------
   3
   4 Welcome to wxWindows 2, 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 frames, scrolling
   9 windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons, device contexts, printing,
  10 splitter windows and so on, there are wrappers for common file operations,
  11 and facilities for writing TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more.
  12 Where certain features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and
  13 tree controls on Unix, they are emulated.
  14
  15 A detailed 1400-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF and
  16 Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
  17
  18 For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm for a
  19 list of important documents and samples.
  20
  21 Changes in this release
  22 -----------------------
  23
  24 Please see changes.txt for details.
  25
  26 Platforms supported
  27 -------------------
  28
  29 wxWindows 2 currently supports the following platforms:
  30
  31 - Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT
  32 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  33 - Most Unix variants with GTK+
  34 - MacOS
  35
  36 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  37 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  38 See also http://www.wxwindows.org/platform.htm.
  39
  40 Files
  41 -----
  42
  43 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  44 target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
  45 Some add-on libraries (such as the Object Graphics Library) are
  46 available in zip form only. In the following, x.y.z represents
  47 the current version number.
  48
  49 wxWindows for GTK distribution
  50 ------------------------------
  51
  52 wxGTK-x.y.z.tgz                    wxGTK source distribution. You will
  53                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  54                                    (see below)
  55 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tgz              wxGTK demos source
  56 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tgz            wxGTK samples source
  57 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  58 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  59 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  60
  61 wxWindows for Motif distribution
  62 --------------------------------
  63
  64 wxMotif-x.y.z.tgz                  wxMotif source distribution. Contains
  65                                    TIFF, JPEG, Tex2RTF source plus HTML
  66                                    documentation.
  67
  68 wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
  69 -------------------------------------
  70
  71 setup.exe, setup.w*                Setup files (Windows 95/98, NT)
  72                                    in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  73 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  74                                    setup files
  75 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the
  76                                    files that are in the setup
  77                                    distribution
  78
  79 wxWindows for MacOS distribution
  80 --------------------------------
  81
  82 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  83                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  84
  85 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  86
  87 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
  88 - Object Graphics Library, in contrib/src/ogl;
  89 - a Dialog Editor binary;
  90 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  91 - Life! sample binary;
  92 - the JPEG library source;
  93 - the TIFF library source.
  94
  95 Documentation files
  96 -------------------
  97
  98 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
  99 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 100 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 101 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 102 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 103                                    use with the helpview utility)
 104 wxWindows-x.y.z-Word.zip           MS Word documentation (currently,
 105                                    database class documentation only)
 106 wxWindows-x.y.z-DocSource.zip      Documentation source code (not required)
 107
 108 Add-ons
 109 -------
 110
 111 wxWindows-x.y.z-cw.zip             Metrowerks CodeWarrior 4.1 project files
 112 wxWindows-x.y.z-wat.zip            Watcom C++ project files
 113 wxWindows-x.y.z-vc.zip             Visual C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 114 wxWindows-x.y.z-bc.zip             Borland C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 115 jpeg.zip                           JPEG library (already included
 116                                    in most distributions)
 117 tiff.zip                           TIFF library (already included
 118                                    in most distributions)
 119 ogl3.zip                           Optional Object Graphics Library
 120 mmedia.zip                         Optional MMedia library (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 121 stc.zip                            Optional wxStyledTextCtrl library
 122                                    (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 123 tex2rtf2.zip                       Tex2RTF documentation tool
 124 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
 125
 126 Installation
 127 ------------
 128
 129 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 130 the samples or write your own applications.
 131 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 132 in the individual directories:
 133
 134   docs/msw
 135   docs/gtk
 136   docs/motif
 137   docs/mac
 138
 139 Licence information
 140 -------------------
 141
 142 For licensing information, please see the files:
 143
 144   docs/preamble.txt
 145   docs/licence.txt
 146   docs/licendoc.txt
 147   docs/gpl.txt
 148   docs/lgpl.txt
 149
 150 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 151 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 152 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 153 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 154 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 155 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 156 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 157
 158 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 159 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 160 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 161 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 162 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefuly LGPL, section 6.
 163 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 164 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamicaly and
 165 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 166 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 167 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 168 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 169
 170 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 171 for libtiff license details.
 172
 173 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 174 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 175 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 176
 177 Documentation
 178 -------------
 179
 180 See docs/bugs.txt for a bug list: this file is new and will initially
 181   be edited by hand, later generated from a web-based bug database.
 182
 183 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 184
 185 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
 186
 187 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 188
 189 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 190 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 191
 192 Further information
 193 -------------------
 194
 195 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 196
 197   http://www.wxwindows.org
 198
 199 The wxGTK Web site (with further wxGTK-specific files and
 200 information) is located at:
 201
 202   http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt
 203
 204 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 205
 206   ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin
 207
 208 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 209 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 210 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
 211 web site.
 212
 213 Good luck!
 214
 215 The wxWindows Team, 8th May, 2001
 216