docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.2.0
   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 - Mac (not covered here: please see the wxWindows web site
  35   for details)
  36
  37 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  38 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  39 See also http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~zeitlin/wxWindows/platform.html.
  40
  41 Files
  42 -----
  43
  44 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  45 target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
  46 Some add-on libraries (such as the Object Graphics Library) are
  47 available in zip form only. In the following, x.y.z represents
  48 the current version number.
  49
  50 wxWindows for GTK distribution
  51 ------------------------------
  52
  53 wxGTK-x.y.z.tgz                    wxGTK source distribution. You will
  54                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  55                                    (see below)
  56 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tgz              wxGTK demos source
  57 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tgz            wxGTK samples source
  58 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  59 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  60 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  61
  62 wxWindows for Motif distribution
  63 --------------------------------
  64
  65 wxMotif-x.y.z.tgz                  wxMotif source distribution. Contains
  66                                    TIFF, JPEG, Tex2RTF source plus HTML
  67                                    documentation.
  68
  69 wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
  70 -------------------------------------
  71
  72 setup.exe, setup.w*                Setup files (Windows 95/98, NT)
  73                                    in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  74 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  75                                    setup files
  76 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the
  77                                    files that are in the setup
  78                                    distribution
  79
  80 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  81
  82 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
  83 - Object Graphics Library, in contrib/src/ogl;
  84 - a Dialog Editor binary;
  85 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  86 - Life! sample binary;
  87 - the JPEG library source;
  88 - the TIFF library source.
  89
  90 Documentation files
  91 -------------------
  92
  93 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
  94 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
  95 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
  96 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
  97 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
  98                                    use with the helpview utility)
  99 wxWindows-x.y.z-Word.zip           MS Word documentation (currently,
 100                                    database class documentation only)
 101 wxWindows-x.y.z-DocSource.zip      Documentation source code (not required)
 102
 103 Add-ons
 104 -------
 105
 106 wxWindows-x.y.z-cw.zip             Metrowerks CodeWarrior 4.1 project files
 107 wxWindows-x.y.z-wat.zip            Watcom C++ project files
 108 wxWindows-x.y.z-vc.zip             Visual C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 109 wxWindows-x.y.z-bc.zip             Borland C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 110 jpeg.zip                           JPEG library (already included
 111                                    in most distributions)
 112 tiff.zip                           TIFF library (already included
 113                                    in most distributions)
 114 ogl3.zip                           Optional Object Graphics Library
 115 mmedia.zip                         Optional MMedia library (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 116 stc.zip                            Optional wxStyledTextCtrl library
 117                                    (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 118 tex2rtf2.zip                       Tex2RTF documentation tool
 119 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
 120
 121 Installation
 122 ------------
 123
 124 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 125 the samples or write your own applications.
 126 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 127 in the individual directories:
 128
 129   docs/msw
 130   docs/gtk
 131   docs/motif
 132
 133 Licence information
 134 -------------------
 135
 136 For licensing information, please see the files:
 137
 138   docs/preamble.txt
 139   docs/licence.txt
 140   docs/licendoc.txt
 141   docs/gpl.txt
 142   docs/lgpl.txt
 143
 144 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 145 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 146 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 147 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 148 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 149 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 150 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 151
 152 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 153 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 154 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 155 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 156 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefuly LGPL, section 6.
 157 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 158 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamicaly and
 159 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 160 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 161 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 162 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 163
 164 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 165 for libtiff license details.
 166
 167 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 168 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 169 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 170
 171 Documentation
 172 -------------
 173
 174 See docs/bugs.txt for a bug list: this file is new and will initially
 175   be edited by hand, later generated from a web-based bug database.
 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 Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 184 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 185
 186 Further information
 187 -------------------
 188
 189 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 190
 191   http://www.wxwindows.org
 192
 193 The wxGTK Web site (with further wxGTK-specific files and
 194 information) is located at:
 195
 196   http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt
 197
 198 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 199
 200   ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin
 201
 202 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 203 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 204 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page (see the wxWindows
 205 web site) or contact Julian Smart <julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk>.
 206
 207 Good luck!
 208
 209 The wxWindows Team, 9th July, 2000
 210