docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWidgets 2.8.1
   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 2.6" 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, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Pocket PC/Mobile, Smartphone
  34 - Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1 and GTK+ 2
  35 - Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
  36 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  37 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.3 and above preferred)
  38 - MacOS 10.x using Cocoa (beta)
  39 - OS/2 (beta)
  40 - PalmOS (alpha)
  41
  42 Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
  43 file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
  44 See also http://www.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
  45
  46 Note that 2.6 series were the last to fully support GTK+ 1.2, and Mac OS
  47 9/Mac OS 10.2 and below. wxWidgets 2.7 and above focuses on GTK+ 2 and Mac OS
  48 10.3 and above and compatibility with earlier systems is not guaranteed any
  49 more.
  50
  51 Files
  52 -----
  53
  54 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  55 target system. See the download pages for details.
  56
  57 Installation
  58 ------------
  59
  60 wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
  61 or write your own applications. For installation information, please
  62 see the install.txt file in the individual directories:
  63
  64   docs/msw
  65   docs/gtk
  66   docs/motif
  67   docs/mac
  68   docs/cocoa
  69   docs/x11
  70   docs/mgl
  71   docs/os2
  72   docs/palmos
  73
  74 Licence information
  75 -------------------
  76
  77 For licensing information, please see the files:
  78
  79   docs/preamble.txt
  80   docs/licence.txt
  81   docs/licendoc.txt
  82   docs/gpl.txt
  83   docs/lgpl.txt
  84
  85 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
  86 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in addition
  87 to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary, the licence is
  88 LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted distribution of
  89 application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you don't have to
  90 distribute any source if you wish to write commercial
  91 applications using wxWidgets.
  92
  93 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif)
  94 version of your application, don't forget that it is linked
  95 against GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without*
  96 exception notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
  97 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section
  98 6. which describes conditions for distribution of closed source
  99 applications linked against LGPL library. Basically you should
 100 link dynamically and include source code of LGPL libraries with
 101 your product (unless it is already present in user's system -
 102 like glibc usually is). If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix
 103 only), wxWidgets library will contain iODBC library which is
 104 covered by LGPL.
 105
 106 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 107 for libtiff licence details.
 108
 109 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program
 110 should contain following sentence: "This software is based in
 111 part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". See
 112 src/jpeg/README for details.
 113
 114 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular
 115 expressions support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT
 116 file for Henry Spencer's regular expression library copyright.
 117
 118 If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.
 119
 120 Documentation
 121 -------------
 122
 123 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 124
 125 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets.
 126
 127 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 128
 129 The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
 130
 131   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 132
 133 The Windows HTML Help files are located in docs/htmlhelp.
 134 The Windows Help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 135 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 136 The HTB (wxWidgets HTML Help) files are located in docs/htb.
 137
 138 Further information
 139 -------------------
 140
 141 The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
 142
 143   http://www.wxwidgets.org
 144
 145 The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
 146
 147   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 148
 149 A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 150 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 151 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
 152 web site.
 153
 154 Have fun!
 155
 156 The wxWidgets Team, January 2007
 157