docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.5.2
   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 2.4.x stable series. You are still encouraged
   7 *** to try the releases from 2.5.x branch, of course, and unstable
   8 *** doesn't mean that they crash all the time -- just that the API
   9 *** may change in backwards incompatible way. If this doesn't frighten
  10 *** you, do try this release and please let us know what you think!
  11
  12 Welcome to wxWidgets, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
  13 framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where
  14 possible) the native controls.
  15
  16 In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as
  17 frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons,
  18 device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are
  19 wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing
  20 TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain
  21 features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree
  22 controls on Unix, they are emulated.
  23
  24 A detailed 1800-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
  25 and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
  26
  27 For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm
  28 for a list of important documents and samples.
  29
  30 Changes in this release
  31 -----------------------
  32
  33 Please see changes.txt for details.
  34
  35 Platforms supported
  36 -------------------
  37
  38 wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:
  39
  40 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Pocket PC
  41 - Most Unix variants with GTK+
  42 - Most Unix variants with X11
  43 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  44 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.4 and above preferred)
  45 - MacOS 10.x using Cocoa
  46 - OS/2 (alpha)
  47
  48 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  49 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  50 See also http://www.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
  51
  52 Files
  53 -----
  54
  55 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  56 target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
  57 In the following, x.y.z represents the current version number.
  58
  59 wxWidgets for GTK+ distribution
  60 -------------------------------
  61
  62 wxGTK-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxGTK source distribution. You will
  63                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  64                                    (see below)
  65 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tar.gz           wxGTK demos source
  66 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tar.gz         wxGTK samples source
  67 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  68 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  69 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  70 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          Add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
  71
  72 wxWidgets for X11 and Motif distribution
  73 ----------------------------------------
  74
  75 wxX11-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxX11 and wxMotif source distribution, without
  76                                    documentation.
  77
  78 wxWidgets for MS Windows distribution
  79 -------------------------------------
  80
  81 setup.exe, setup-*.bin             Setup files in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  82 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  83                                    setup files
  84 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the files that are
  85                                    in the setup distribution
  86
  87 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  88
  89 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
  90 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  91 - Life! sample binary.
  92
  93 wxWidgets for MacOS distribution
  94 --------------------------------
  95
  96 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  97                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  98 wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz                 Gzipped tar archive containing all
  99                                    source files (excludes documentation).
 100                                    You might prefer this format if building on
 101                                    MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions.
 102
 103 wxWidgets for OS/2 distribution
 104 -------------------------------
 105
 106 wxOS2-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all source files
 107                                    (excludes documentation)
 108
 109 Documentation files
 110 -------------------
 111
 112 wxWidgets-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 113 wxWidgets-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 114 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 115 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 116 wxWidgets-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 117                                    use with the helpview utility)
 118
 119 Installation
 120 ------------
 121
 122 wxWidgets 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 123 the samples or write your own applications.
 124 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 125 in the individual directories:
 126
 127   docs/msw
 128   docs/gtk
 129   docs/motif
 130   docs/mac
 131   docs/x11
 132   docs/mgl
 133   docs/os2
 134
 135 Licence information
 136 -------------------
 137
 138 For licensing information, please see the files:
 139
 140   docs/preamble.txt
 141   docs/licence.txt
 142   docs/licendoc.txt
 143   docs/gpl.txt
 144   docs/lgpl.txt
 145
 146 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 147 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in
 148 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 149 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 150 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 151 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 152 commercial applications using wxWidgets.
 153
 154 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 155 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 156 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 157 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 158 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
 159 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 160 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 161 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 162 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 163 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWidgets library will
 164 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 165
 166 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 167 for libtiff licence details.
 168
 169 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 170 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 171 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 172
 173 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 174 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 175 regular expression library copyright.
 176
 177 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 178
 179
 180 Documentation
 181 -------------
 182
 183 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 184
 185 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets 2.
 186
 187 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 188
 189 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 190
 191   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 192
 193 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 194 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 195
 196 Further information
 197 -------------------
 198
 199 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 200
 201   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 202
 203 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 204
 205   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 206
 207 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 208 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 209 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 210 web site.
 211
 212 Have fun!
 213
 214 The wxWidgets Team, May 2004
 215