docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.3.3
   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 2.2.x stable series.
   7
   8 Welcome to wxWindows 2, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
   9 framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where
  10 possible) the native controls.
  11
  12 In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as
  13 frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons,
  14 device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are
  15 wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing
  16 TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain
  17 features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree
  18 controls on Unix, they are emulated.
  19
  20 A detailed 1700-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
  21 and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
  22
  23 For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm
  24 for a list of important documents and samples.
  25
  26 Changes in this release
  27 -----------------------
  28
  29 Please see changes.txt for details.
  30
  31 Platforms supported
  32 -------------------
  33
  34 wxWindows 2 currently supports the following platforms:
  35
  36 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (see msw/winxp.txt)
  37 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  38 - Most Unix variants with GTK+
  39 - MacOS
  40 - Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
  41 - DOS with MGL (beta)
  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.wxwindows.org/platform.htm.
  46
  47 Files
  48 -----
  49
  50 The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
  51 target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
  52 Some add-on libraries (such as the Object Graphics Library) are
  53 available in zip form only. In the following, x.y.z represents
  54 the current version number.
  55
  56 wxWindows for GTK distribution
  57 ------------------------------
  58
  59 wxGTK-x.y.z.tgz                    wxGTK source distribution. You will
  60                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  61                                    (see below)
  62 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tgz              wxGTK demos source
  63 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tgz            wxGTK samples source
  64 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  65 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  66 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  67
  68 wxWindows for Motif distribution
  69 --------------------------------
  70
  71 wxMotif-x.y.z.tgz                  wxMotif source distribution, without
  72                                    documentation.
  73
  74 wxWindows for X11 distribution
  75 ------------------------------
  76
  77 wxX11-x.y.z.tgz                    wxX11 source distribution, without
  78                                    documentation.
  79
  80 wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
  81 -------------------------------------
  82
  83 setup.exe, setup.w*                Setup files (Windows 95/98, NT)
  84                                    in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  85 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  86                                    setup files
  87 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the
  88                                    files that are in the setup
  89                                    distribution
  90
  91 wxWindows for MacOS distribution
  92 --------------------------------
  93
  94 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  95                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  96
  97 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  98
  99 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
 100 - Object Graphics Library, in contrib/src/ogl;
 101 - a Dialog Editor binary;
 102 - a Tex2RTF binary;
 103 - Life! sample binary;
 104 - the JPEG library source;
 105 - the TIFF library source.
 106
 107 Documentation files
 108 -------------------
 109
 110 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 111 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 112 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 113 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 114 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 115                                    use with the helpview utility)
 116 wxWindows-x.y.z-Word.zip           MS Word documentation (currently,
 117                                    database class documentation only)
 118 wxWindows-x.y.z-DocSource.zip      Documentation source code (not required)
 119
 120 Add-ons
 121 -------
 122
 123 wxWindows-x.y.z-cw.zip             Metrowerks CodeWarrior 4.1 project files
 124 wxWindows-x.y.z-wat.zip            Watcom C++ project files
 125 wxWindows-x.y.z-vc.zip             Visual C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 126 wxWindows-x.y.z-bc.zip             Borland C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
 127 jpeg.zip                           JPEG library (already included
 128                                    in most distributions)
 129 tiff.zip                           TIFF library (already included
 130                                    in most distributions)
 131 ogl3.zip                           Optional Object Graphics Library
 132 mmedia.zip                         Optional MMedia library (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 133 stc.zip                            Optional wxStyledTextCtrl library
 134                                    (Motif, GTK, MSW)
 135 tex2rtf2.zip                       Tex2RTF documentation tool
 136 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
 137
 138 Installation
 139 ------------
 140
 141 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 142 the samples or write your own applications.
 143 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 144 in the individual directories:
 145
 146   docs/msw
 147   docs/gtk
 148   docs/motif
 149   docs/mac
 150   docs/x11
 151   docs/mgl
 152
 153 Licence information
 154 -------------------
 155
 156 For licensing information, please see the files:
 157
 158   docs/preamble.txt
 159   docs/licence.txt
 160   docs/licendoc.txt
 161   docs/gpl.txt
 162   docs/lgpl.txt
 163
 164 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 165 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 166 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 167 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 168 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 169 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 170 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 171
 172 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 173 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 174 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 175 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 176 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefuly LGPL, section 6.
 177 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 178 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamicaly and
 179 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 180 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 181 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 182 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 183
 184 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 185 for libtiff license details.
 186
 187 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 188 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 189 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 190
 191 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 192 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 193 regular expression library copyright.
 194
 195 Documentation
 196 -------------
 197
 198 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 199
 200 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
 201
 202 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 203
 204 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 205 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 206
 207 Further information
 208 -------------------
 209
 210 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 211
 212   http://www.wxwindows.org
 213
 214 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 215
 216   ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin
 217
 218 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 219 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 220 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
 221 web site.
 222
 223 Have fun!
 224
 225 The wxWindows Team, April 2002
 226