1 Installing wxWindows 2.5.0
2 --------------------------
4 This is wxWindows 2.5.0 for Microsoft Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000
5 and Windows XP. This is an unstable development release. Note that unstable in
6 this context doesn't mean that it crashes a lot, just that the library API may
7 change in backwards incompatible way during the 2.5 branch life time.
10 IMPORTANT NOTE: If you experience problems installing, please
11 re-read this instructions and other related files (changes.txt,
12 readme.txt, FAQ) carefully before mailing wx-users. Preferably,
13 try to fix the problem first and then upload a patch to
16 http://sourceforge.net/patch/?group_id=9863
18 Please report bugs using the SourceForge bug tracker:
20 http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
26 A setup program is provided (setup.exe) to automatically copy
27 files to a directory on your hard disk. Do not install into a
28 path that contains spaces. To avoid confusion with other
29 wxWindows installations that might be on your machine, the
30 installation program does not se the WXWIN environment variable;
31 please set this by hand via the System applet if you wish to
34 The setup program contains the following:
36 - All common, generic and MSW-specific wxWindows source;
38 - documentation in Windows Help format;
39 - makefiles for most Windows compilers, plus CodeWarrior,
40 BC++ and VC++ IDE files;
41 - JPEG library source;
42 - TIFF library source;
43 - Object Graphics Library;
45 - Dialog Editor binary.
47 Alternatively, you may unarchive the .zip form by hand:
48 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip where x.y.z is the version number.
50 Unarchive the required files plus any optional documentation
51 files into a suitable directory such as c:\wx.
53 Other add-on packages are available from the wxWindows Web site, such as:
55 - mmedia.zip. Audio, CD, video access for Windows and Linux.
56 - ogl3.zip. Object Graphics Library: build network diagrams, CASE tools etc.
57 - tex2rtf3.zip. Tex2RTF: create Windows Help, HTML, and Word RTF files from
58 the same document source.
61 General installation notes
62 --------------------------
64 If installing from the CVS server, copy include/wx/msw/setup0.h to
65 include/wx/msw/setup.h and edit the resulting file to choose
66 the features you would like to compile wxWindows with[out].
72 The following sections explain how to compile wxWindows with each supported
73 compiler. Search for one of Microsoft/Borland/Watcom/Symantec/Metrowerks/
74 Cygwin/Mingw32 to quickly locate the instructions for your compiler.
76 All makefiles and project are located in build\msw directory.
78 Where compiled files are stored
79 -------------------------------
81 After succesful compilation you'll find the libraries in a subdirectory
82 of lib directory named after the compiler, toolkit name and DLL and Unicode
83 settings. A couple of examples:
85 lib\vc_msw VC++ compiled static libraries
86 lib\vc_mswdll VC++ DLLs
87 lib\bcc_mswud Static libraries for Borland C++,
89 lib\wat_mswunivdll Watcom C++ DLLs of wxUniversal port
91 Names of compiled wxWindows libraries follow this scheme: libraries that don't
92 depend on GUI components begin with "wxbase" followed by version number and
93 letters indicating if the library is compiled as Unicode ('u') and/or debug
94 build ('d'). Last component of them name is name of wxWindows component
95 (unless you built the library as single monolithic library; look for
96 "Configuring the build" below). This is a typical set of release ANSI build
97 libraries (release versions on left, debug on right side):
99 wxbase25.lib wxbase25d.lib
100 wxbase25_net.lib wxbase25d_net.lib
101 wxbase25_xml.lib wxbase25d_xml.lib
102 wxmsw25_core.lib wxmsw25d_core.lib
103 wxmsw25_html.lib wxmsw25d_html.lib
104 wxmsw25_adv.lib wxmsw25d_adv.lib
106 These directories also contain wx/setup.h header.
108 Below are compiler specific notes followed by customizing instructions that
109 apply to all compilers (search for "Configuring the build").
112 Microsoft Visual C++ compilation
113 --------------------------------
115 You may wish to visit http://wiki.wxwindows.org/wiki.pl?MSVC for a more
116 informal and more detailed description of the process summarized below.
118 Please note that the VC++ 6.0 project files will work for VC++ .NET also.
120 Also note that you can make the project files work with VC++ 5.0 but you'll
121 need to edit .dsp file by hand before this is possible (change the version in
122 the .dsp file header from 6.0 to 5.0).
124 Using project files (VC++ 6 and later):
126 1. Unarchive wxWindows-x.y.z-vc.zip, the VC++ 6 project
127 makefiles (already included in wxMSW-x.y.z.zip and the setup version).
128 2. Open build\msw\wx.dsw, which has configurations for static
129 compilation or DLL compilation, and each of these available in
130 Unicode/ANSI, Debug/Release and wxUniversal or native variations.
131 Normally you'll use a static linking ANSI configuration.
132 Choose the Win32 Debug or Win32 Release configuration for the wxWindows
133 project, and compile. Alternatively, use Batch Build to build more than
134 one configuration. It will also produce similar variations on jpeg.lib,
135 png.lib, tiff.lib, zlib.lib, and regex.lib.
136 3. Open a sample project file, choose a configuration such as
137 Win32 Debug using Build | Set Active Configuration..., and compile.
138 The project files don't use precompiled headers, to save disk
139 space, but you can switch PCH compiling on for greater speed.
140 NOTE: you may also use samples/samples.dsw to access all
141 sample projects without opening each workspace individually.
142 You can use the Batch Build facility to make several samples
147 1. If you do NOT have the TIFF or JPEG source code, please remove
148 the tiff and jpeg targets from the 'all' target in
149 src\msw\makefile.vc. Also ensure the settings in
150 include\wx\msw\setup.h specify not to use JPEG or TIFF.
151 2. Change directory to build\msw. Type:
153 'nmake -f makefile.vc'
155 to make the wxWindows core library as release DLL.
156 See "Configuring the build" for instruction how to build debug or static
158 3. Change directory to samples and type 'nmake -f makefile.vc'
159 to make all the samples. You can also make them individually.
163 Use the 'clean' target to clean all objects, libraries and
166 Note (1): if you wish to use templates, please edit
167 include\wx\msw\setup.h and set wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS to 0.
168 Without this, the redefinition of 'new' will cause problems in
169 the headers. Alternatively, #undef new before including template headers.
170 You will also need to set wxUSE_IOSTREAMH to 0 if you will be
171 using templates, to avoid the non-template stream files being included
174 Note (2): libraries and applications generated with makefiles and
175 project files are now (hopefully) compatible where static libraries
176 are concerned, but please exercise caution nevertheless and if
177 possible, use one method or the other.
179 Note (3): VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
180 cause both compile and run-time problems: this can be seen when
181 deleting an object Dialog Editor, in Release mode with optimizations
182 on. If in doubt, switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
183 larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
184 strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
185 optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
186 Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
187 Code' (and no others). This will then work.
189 Note (4): some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
190 options. If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
191 check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
192 if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
193 symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
194 the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.
196 Note (5): to create your own IDE files, see the technical note on the
197 wxWindows web site or CD-ROM, entitled "Compiling wxWindows
198 applications in the VC++ IDE" (technical note docs/tech/tn0010.htm in the
199 wxWindows distribution). You can also copy .dsp and .dsw
200 files from an existing wxWindows sample and adapt them.
203 Visual C++ 1.5 compilation (16-bit)
204 -----------------------------------
209 Borland C++ 5.0/5.5 compilation
210 -------------------------------
212 Compiling using the makefiles (updated 24 Sept 02):
214 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'make -f makefile.bcc' to
215 make the wxWindows core library. Ignore the compiler warnings.
216 This produces a couple of librarie in the lib\bcc_mswdll directory.
218 2. Change directory to a sample or demo such as samples\minimal, and type
219 'make -f makefile.bcc'. This produces a windows exe file - by default
220 in the bcc_mswdll subdirectory.
222 Note (1): the wxWindows makefiles assume dword structure alignment. Please
223 make sure that your own project or makefile settings use the
224 same alignment, or you could experience mysterious crashes. To
225 change the alignment, change CPPFLAGS in build\msw\config.bcc.
227 Note (2): if you get undefined _SQL... symbols at link time,
228 either install odbc32.lib from the BC++ CD-ROM into your BC++ lib
229 directory, or set wxUSE_ODBC to 0 in include\wx\msw\setup.h and
230 recompile wxWindows. The same applies if compiling using the IDE.
233 Note (3): If you wish debug messages to be sent to the console in
234 debug mode, edit makefile.bcc and change /aa to /Tpe in link commands.
236 Compiling using the IDE files: [Borland C++ 5.0, not Cbuilder]
238 1. Load src\bc32.ide from the file bc32.zip at
239 http://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub/ports/bcc32/wxwin21/ and select Release settings
240 2. Go to Options|Project... and specify the correct BC++ include and lib path for
242 3. Press F9 to compile the wxWindows library.
243 4. Load samples\bc32.ide.
244 5. Go to Options|Project... and specify the correct BC++ include and lib path for
246 6. Press F9 to compile the samples (build each node separately if
247 you prefer, by right clicking and choose Build Node).
248 7. Run each sample: you may need to run from each sample's directory
249 since some (notably the wxHTML samples) look for files
250 relative to the working directory.
252 Note (1): the samples project file contains a selection of
253 samples, and not all samples. The remaining samples can be made
254 with the makefiles. See also the demos hierarchy which doesn't
255 have any BC++ project files yet.
257 Note (2): to make the png, zlib, jpeg and tiff libraries (needed for
258 some samples) you need to compile them with bc32.ide.
260 Note (3): the debug version of the wxWindows library is about 40 MB, and the
261 release version is around 5 MB.
263 See also the file docs/tech/tn0007.txt for further instructions and details
264 of how to create your own project files.
268 In all of your wxWindows applications, your source code should include
269 the following preprocessor directive:
275 (check the samples -- e.g., \wx2\samples\minimal\minimal.cpp -- for
279 Borland C++Builder IDE compilation
280 ----------------------------------
282 1. Build the wxWindows libraries using the Borland make utility as
283 specified in the section called "Borland C++ 5.0 compilation"
284 above. (C++ Builder includes a stand-alone C++ compiler. For example,
285 C++ Builder 4.0 comes with C++ 5.4.)
287 2. You can use the process_sample_bcb.bat command which is in
288 wxwindows\distrib\msw to generate a .mak or .bpr file for most of the
289 samples [mak for Cbuilder 1-6; v4 and after will convert this to bpr].
290 Execute this in the sampledirectory, passing the name of the cpp files
291 on the command line. For more details, see the instructions in
292 docs/tech/tn0004.htm or http://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/wx/bc/ide.html.
294 Borland 16 Bit compilation for Windows 3.1
295 ------------------------------------------
297 The last version of wxWindows to support 16-bit compilation with Borland was
298 2.2.7 - Please download and read the instructions in that release
300 Watcom C++ 10.6/11 and OpenWatcom compilation
301 ---------------------------------------------
303 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'wmake -f makefile.wat' to
304 make the wxWindows core library.
305 2. Change directory to wx\samples\minimal and type 'wmake -f makefile.wat'
306 to make this sample. Repeat for other samples of interest.
309 Note (1): if your installation of Watcom doesn't have odbc32.lib file and
310 you need it (i.e. you have wxUSE_ODBC=1), you can use the file
311 from lib\watcom directory. See the notes in that directory.
313 Note (2): if variant.cpp is compiled with date/time class options, the linker
314 gives up. So the date/time option is switched off for Watcom C++.
315 Also, wxAutomationObject is not compiled with Watcom C++ 10.
317 Note (3): RawBitmaps won't work at present because they use unsupported template
320 Note (4): if Watcom can't read the precompiled header when building a sample,
321 try deleting .pch files in build\msw\wat_* and compiling
325 Metrowerks CodeWarrior compilation
326 ----------------------------------
328 1. CodeWarrior Pro7 project files in XML format are already
329 included in wxMSW-2.5.0.zip and the setup version.
330 2. Review the file include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if
331 you are working from the CVS version) to make sure the settings reflect
332 what you want. If you aren't sure, leave it alone and go with the
333 default settings. A few notes:
334 - Don't use wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS: it doesn't mix well with MSL
335 - wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS works, but memory leak reports
336 will be rather confusing due to interactions with the MSL ANSI
338 3. The project file to build the Win32 wxWindows libraries relies on the
339 Batch File Runner plug-in. This plug-in is not installed as part of
340 a normal CW7 installation. However, you can find this plug-in on the
341 CodeWarrior Reference CD, in the Thrill Seekers folder; it's call the
342 "Batch File Post Linker".
343 4. If you choose not to install the Batch File Runner plug-in, then you
344 need to do the following by hand:
345 (1) Create the directories lib\cw7msw\include\wx and copy the file
346 include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if you are
347 working from the CVS version) to lib\cw7msw\include\wx\setup.h
348 (2) Create the directories lib\cw7mswd\include\wx and copy the file
349 include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if you are
350 working from the CVS version) to lib\cw7mswd\include\wx\setup.h
351 5. Import src\wxWindowsW7.xml to create the project file wxWindowsW7.mcp.
352 Store this project file in directory src. You may get warnings about
353 not being able to find certain project paths; ignore these warnings, the
354 appropriate paths will be created during the build by the Batch File Runner.
355 6. Choose the wxlib Win32 debug or wxlib Win32 Release target and build. You
356 will get some warnings about hidden virtual functions, illegal conversions
357 from const pointers to pointers, etc., all of which you can safely ignore.
358 ***Note: if you get errors that the compiler can't find "wx/setup.h", just
359 stop the build and build again. These errors occur because sometimes the
360 compiler starts doing its thing before the copying of setup.h has completed.
361 7. The following libraries will be produced depending on chosen
363 - wx_x86.lib ANSI Release (static)
364 - wx_x86_d.lib ANSI Debug (static)
365 8. Sorry, I haven't had time yet to create and test unicode or DLL versions.
366 Volunteers for this are welcome (as neither DLLs nor unicode builds are
367 big priorities for me ;).
368 9. CodeWarrior Pro7 project files (in XML format) are also provided for some
369 of the samples. In particular, there are project files for the minimal,
370 controls, dialogs, dnd, nd docview samples. You can use these project
371 files as templates for the other samples and for your own projects.
372 - For example, to make a project file for the "newgrid" sample,
373 just copy the project file for the "minimal" sample, minimalW7.mcp
374 (made by importing minimalW7.xml into CodeWarrior), into the
375 sample/newgrid directory, calling it newgridW7.mcp. Open
376 newgridW7.mcp and revise the project by deleting the files
377 minimal.rc and minimal.cpp and adding the files griddemo.rc and
378 griddemo.cpp. Build and run....
381 Cygwin/MinGW compilation
382 ------------------------
384 wxWindows 2 supports Cygwin (formerly GnuWin32) betas and
385 releases, and MinGW. Cygwin can be downloaded from:
387 http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/
391 http://www.mingw.org/
393 Both Cygwin and MinGW can be used with configure (assuming you have MSYS
394 installed in case of MinGW). You will need new enough MinGW version, preferably
395 MinGW 2.0 (ships with gcc3) or at least 1.0 (gcc-2.95.3). GCC versions older
396 than 2.95.3 don't work; you can use wxWindows 2.4 with them.
398 NOTE: some notes specific to old Cygwin (< 1.1.x) are at the end of this
399 section (see OLD VERSIONS)
401 There are two methods of compiling wxWindows, by using the
402 makefiles provided or by using 'configure'.
404 Retrieve and install the latest version of Cygwin, or MinGW, as per
405 the instructions with either of these packages.
407 If using MinGW, you can download the add-on MSYS package to
408 provide Unix-like tools that you'll need to build wxWindows using configure.
410 Using makefiles directly
411 ------------------------
413 NOTE: The makefile are for compilation under Cygwin, MSYS, or
414 command.com/cmd.exe, they won't work in other environments
417 Here are the steps required using the provided makefiles:
419 - If you are using gcc-2.95, edit build\msw\config.gcc and set the GCC_VERSION
422 - Use the makefile.gcc files for compiling wxWindows and samples,
423 e.g. to compile a debugging version of wxWindows:
425 > make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug
426 > cd c:\wx\samples\minimal
427 > make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug
428 (See below for more options.)
430 Ignore the warning about the default entry point.
432 - Use the 'strip' command to reduce executable/dll size (note that
433 stripping an executable/dll will remove debug information!).
435 All targets have 'clean' targets to allow removal of object files
436 and other intermediate compiler files.
441 Instead of using the makefiles, you can use the configure
442 system to generate appropriate makefiles, as used on Unix
443 and Mac OS X systems.
445 Change directory to the root of the wxWindows distribution,
446 make a build directory, and run configure and make in this directory.
453 ../configure --with-msw --enable-debug --enable-debug_gdb --disable-shared
455 make install % This step is optional, see note (8) below.
462 1. See also the Cygwin/MinGW on the web site or CD-ROM for
463 further information about using wxWindows with these compilers.
465 2. libwx.a is 100 MB or more - but much less if compiled with no
466 debug info (-g0) and level 4 optimization (-O4).
468 3. If you get a link error under MinGW 2.95.2 referring to:
470 EnumDAdvise__11IDataObjectPP13IEnumSTATDATA@8
472 then you need to edit the file objidl.h at line 663 and add
473 a missing PURE keyword:
475 STDMETHOD(EnumDAdvise)(THIS_ IEnumSTATDATA**) PURE;
477 4. There's a bug in MinGW headers for some early distributions.
479 in include/windows32/defines.h, where it says:
481 #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA (LPSTR)-1L)
485 #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA ((LPSTR)-1L)
489 5. OpenGL support should work with MinGW as-is. However,
490 if you wish to generate import libraries appropriate either for
491 the MS OpenGL libraries or the SGI OpenGL libraries, go to
492 include/wx/msw/gl and use:
494 dlltool -k -d opengl.def -llibopengl.a
498 dlltool -k -d opengl32.def -llibopengl32.a
500 and similarly for glu[32].def.
502 6. The 'make install' step is optional, and copies files
505 /usr/local/lib - wxmswXYZd.dll.a and wxmswXYZd.dll
506 /usr/local/include/wx - wxWindows header files
507 /usr/local/bin - wx-config
509 You may need to do this if using wx-config with the
512 7. With Cygwin, you can invoke gdb --nw myfile.exe to
513 debug an executable. If there are memory leaks, they will be
514 flagged when the program quits. You can use Cygwin gdb
515 to debug MinGW executables.
520 - Modify the file wx/src/cygnus.bat (or mingw32.bat or mingegcs.bat)
521 to set up appropriate variables, if necessary mounting drives.
522 Run it before compiling.
524 - For Cygwin, make sure there's a \tmp directory on your
525 Windows drive or bison will crash (actually you don't need
526 bison for ordinary wxWindows compilation: a pre-generated .c file is
529 - If using GnuWin32 b18, you will need to copy windres.exe
530 from e.g. the MinGW distribution, to a directory in your path.
533 Symantec & DigitalMars C++ compilation
534 ------------------------
535 The DigitalMars compiler is a free succssor to the Symantec compiler
536 and can be downloaded from http://www.digitalmars.com/
538 1. You need to download and unzip in turn (later packages will overwrite
540 Digital Mars C/C++ Compiler Version 8.33
542 beta test C++ Compiler Version 8.34
543 from http://www.digitalmars.com/download/freecompiler.html [02 may 03, CE]
545 2. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'make -f makefile.dm' to
546 make the wxWindows core library.
547 3. Change directory to wx\samples\minimal and type 'make -f makefile.dm'
548 to make this sample. The mdi and image sample also work; others may give
549 linker erros due to missing libraries
551 16-bit compilation is no longer supported.
554 Configuring the build
555 =====================
557 CONFIGURING THE BUILD
560 To build Unicode versions of the libraries, add UNICODE=1
561 to the nmake invocation (default is UNICODE=0). If you want to
562 be able to use Unicode version on Windows9x, you will need
563 MSLU (Microsoft Layer for Unicode) runtime DLL and import lib.
564 The former can be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part
565 of the latest Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com
566 for details). An alternative implementation of import library can
567 be downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net - unlike the
568 official one, this one works with other compilers and does not
569 require 300+ MB Platform SDK update. Add MSLU=1 to the nmake
570 invocation to enable MSLU.
576 - Debugging: under Windows 95, debugging output isn't output in
577 the same way that it is under NT or Windows 3.1.
578 Please see DebugView (bin/dbgview.exe in the distribution), also
579 available from http://www.sysinternals.com and on the wxWindows CD-ROM
582 - If you are installing wxWindows 2 from CVS, you may find that
583 include/wx/msw/setup.h is missing. This is deliberate, to avoid
584 developers' different setup.h configurations getting confused.
585 Please copy setup0.h to setup.h before compiling. Also, read
586 the BuildCVS.txt for other hints.