docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.3.3
   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 2.2.x stable series.
   7
   8 Welcome to wxWindows 2, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
   9 framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where
  10 possible) the native controls.
  11
  12 In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as
  13 frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons,
  14 device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are
  15 wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing
  16 TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain
  17 features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree
  18 controls on Unix, they are emulated.
  19
  20 A detailed 1800-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
  21 and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
  22
  23 For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm
  24 for a list of important documents and samples.
  25
  26 Changes in this release
  27 -----------------------
  28
  29 Please see changes.txt for details.
  30
  31 Platforms supported
  32 -------------------
  33
  34 wxWindows currently supports the following platforms:
  35
  36 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
  37 - Most Unix variants with GTK+
  38 - Most Unix variants with X11 (restricted feature set)
  39 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif (restricted feature set)
  40 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x
  41 - DOS with MGL (beta)
  42 - OS/2 (alpha)
  43
  44 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  45 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  46 See also http://www.wxwindows.org/platform.htm.
  47
  48 Files
  49 -----
  50
  51 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  52 target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
  53 In the following, x.y.z represents the current version number.
  54
  55 wxWindows for GTK+ distribution
  56 -------------------------------
  57
  58 wxGTK-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxGTK source distribution. You will
  59                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  60                                    (see below)
  61 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tar.gz           wxGTK demos source
  62 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tar.gz         wxGTK samples source
  63 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  64 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  65 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  66 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          Add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
  67
  68 wxWindows for X11 and Motif distribution
  69 ----------------------------------------
  70
  71 wxX11-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxX11 and wxMotif source distribution, without
  72                                    documentation.
  73
  74 wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
  75 -------------------------------------
  76
  77 setup.exe, setup-*.bin             Setup files in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  78 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  79                                    setup files
  80 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the files that are
  81                                    in the setup distribution
  82
  83 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  84
  85 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
  86 - a Dialog Editor binary;
  87 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  88 - Life! sample binary.
  89
  90 wxWindows for MacOS distribution
  91 --------------------------------
  92
  93 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  94                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  95 wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz                 Gzipped tar archive containing all
  96                                    source files (excludes documentation).
  97                                    You might prefer this format if building on
  98                                    MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions.
  99
 100 wxWindows for OS/2 distribution
 101 -------------------------------
 102
 103 wxOS2-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all source files
 104                                    (excludes documentation)
 105
 106 Documentation files
 107 -------------------
 108
 109 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 110 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 111 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 112 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 113 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 114                                    use with the helpview utility)
 115
 116 Installation
 117 ------------
 118
 119 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 120 the samples or write your own applications.
 121 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 122 in the individual directories:
 123
 124   docs/msw
 125   docs/gtk
 126   docs/motif
 127   docs/mac
 128   docs/x11
 129   docs/mgl
 130   docs/os2
 131
 132 Licence information
 133 -------------------
 134
 135 For licensing information, please see the files:
 136
 137   docs/preamble.txt
 138   docs/licence.txt
 139   docs/licendoc.txt
 140   docs/gpl.txt
 141   docs/lgpl.txt
 142
 143 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 144 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 145 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 146 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 147 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 148 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 149 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 150
 151 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 152 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 153 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 154 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 155 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
 156 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 157 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 158 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 159 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 160 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 161 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 162
 163 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 164 for libtiff license details.
 165
 166 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 167 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 168 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 169
 170 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 171 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 172 regular expression library copyright.
 173
 174 Documentation
 175 -------------
 176
 177 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 178
 179 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
 180
 181 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 182
 183 The wxWindows bug database can be browsed at:
 184
 185   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 186
 187 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 188 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 189
 190 Further information
 191 -------------------
 192
 193 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 194
 195   http://www.wxwindows.org
 196
 197 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 198
 199   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 200
 201 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 202 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 203 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
 204 web site.
 205
 206 Have fun!
 207
 208 The wxWindows Team, September 2002
 209