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
   6 native controls where possible.
   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 and "Changes since 2.4" in the manual
  26 for details.
  27
  28 Platforms supported
  29 -------------------
  30
  31 wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:
  32
  33 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP,
  34   Pocket PC, Smartphone
  35 - Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1 and GTK+ 2
  36 - Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
  37 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  38 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.3 and above preferred)
  39 - MacOS 10.x using Cocoa (beta)
  40 - OS/2 (beta)
  41 - PalmOS (alpha)
  42
  43 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  44 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  45 See also http://www.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
  46
  47 Files
  48 -----
  49
  50 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  51 target system. See the download pages for details.
  52
  53 Installation
  54 ------------
  55
  56 wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
  57 or write your own applications. For installation information, please
  58 see the install.txt file in the individual directories:
  59
  60   docs/msw
  61   docs/gtk
  62   docs/motif
  63   docs/mac
  64   docs/cocoa
  65   docs/x11
  66   docs/mgl
  67   docs/os2
  68   docs/palmos
  69
  70 Licence information
  71 -------------------
  72
  73 For licensing information, please see the files:
  74
  75   docs/preamble.txt
  76   docs/licence.txt
  77   docs/licendoc.txt
  78   docs/gpl.txt
  79   docs/lgpl.txt
  80
  81 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
  82 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in addition
  83 to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary, the licence is
  84 LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted distribution of
  85 application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you don't have to
  86 distribute any source if you wish to write commercial
  87 applications using wxWidgets.
  88
  89 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif)
  90 version of your application, don't forget that it is linked
  91 against GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without*
  92 exception notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
  93 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section
  94 6. which describes conditions for distribution of closed source
  95 applications linked against LGPL library. Basically you should
  96 link dynamically and include source code of LGPL libraries with
  97 your product (unless it is already present in user's system -
  98 like glibc usually is). If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix
  99 only), wxWidgets library will contain iODBC library which is
 100 covered by LGPL.
 101
 102 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 103 for libtiff licence details.
 104
 105 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program
 106 should contain following sentence: "This software is based in
 107 part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". See
 108 src/jpeg/README for details.
 109
 110 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular
 111 expressions support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT
 112 file for Henry Spencer's regular expression library copyright.
 113
 114 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 115
 116 Documentation
 117 -------------
 118
 119 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 120
 121 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets.
 122
 123 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 124
 125 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 126
 127   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 128
 129 The Windows HTML Help files are located in docs/htmlhelp.
 130 The Windows Help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 131 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 132 The HTB (wxWidgets HTML Help) files are located in docs/htb.
 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, April 2005
 153