docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.7.0
   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 Note that 2.6 series were the last to fully support GTK+ 1.2, and Mac OS
  48 9/Mac OS 10.2 and below. wxWidgets 2.7 and above focuses on GTK+ 2 and Mac OS
  49 10.3 and above and compatibility with earlier systems is not guaranteed any
  50 more.
  51
  52 Files
  53 -----
  54
  55 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  56 target system. See the download pages for details.
  57
  58 Installation
  59 ------------
  60
  61 wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
  62 or write your own applications. For installation information, please
  63 see the install.txt file in the individual directories:
  64
  65   docs/msw
  66   docs/gtk
  67   docs/motif
  68   docs/mac
  69   docs/cocoa
  70   docs/x11
  71   docs/mgl
  72   docs/os2
  73   docs/palmos
  74
  75 Licence information
  76 -------------------
  77
  78 For licensing information, please see the files:
  79
  80   docs/preamble.txt
  81   docs/licence.txt
  82   docs/licendoc.txt
  83   docs/gpl.txt
  84   docs/lgpl.txt
  85
  86 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
  87 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in addition
  88 to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary, the licence is
  89 LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted distribution of
  90 application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you don't have to
  91 distribute any source if you wish to write commercial
  92 applications using wxWidgets.
  93
  94 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif)
  95 version of your application, don't forget that it is linked
  96 against GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without*
  97 exception notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
  98 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section
  99 6. which describes conditions for distribution of closed source
 100 applications linked against LGPL library. Basically you should
 101 link dynamically and include source code of LGPL libraries with
 102 your product (unless it is already present in user's system -
 103 like glibc usually is). If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix
 104 only), wxWidgets library will contain iODBC library which is
 105 covered by LGPL.
 106
 107 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 108 for libtiff licence details.
 109
 110 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program
 111 should contain following sentence: "This software is based in
 112 part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". See
 113 src/jpeg/README for details.
 114
 115 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular
 116 expressions support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT
 117 file for Henry Spencer's regular expression library copyright.
 118
 119 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 120
 121 Documentation
 122 -------------
 123
 124 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 125
 126 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets.
 127
 128 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 129
 130 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 131
 132   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 133
 134 The Windows HTML Help files are located in docs/htmlhelp.
 135 The Windows Help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 136 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 137 The HTB (wxWidgets HTML Help) files are located in docs/htb.
 138
 139 Further information
 140 -------------------
 141
 142 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 143
 144   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 145
 146 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 147
 148   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 149
 150 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 151 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 152 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 153 web site.
 154
 155 Have fun!
 156
 157 The wxWidgets Team, September 2005
 158