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   1 \chapter{Introducing wxWindows}\label{chapintro}
   2 \pagenumbering{arabic}%
   3 \setheader{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter: INTRODUCING wxWINDOWS}}{}{}{}{}{{\it CHAPTER \thechapter: INTRODUCING wxWINDOWS}}%
   4 \setfooter{\thepage}{}{}{}{}{\thepage}%
   5
   6 \section{The need for portability}
   7
   8 Not so long ago, it seemed as though Microsoft was on course to
   9 take over the desktop for good with the Windows range of
  10 operating systems. Unix was retreating to server territory and
  11 had all but given up the fight against NT. Apple was sickening
  12 (in the non-derogatory sense of the word!) and it seemed almost
  13 common sense that the quirky Mac had had its day.
  14
  15 At the start of the new century, the picture has changed quite
  16 dramatically. Linux is advancing from its position of strength
  17 in the server market and is poised to make inroads on the
  18 desktop, where the high price of Windows gives it an advantage.
  19 Apple has made an impressive comeback and is revamping its own
  20 operating system. The embedded market continues to explode and
  21 has given rise to new niches for specialist operating systems.
  22 The keyword bow is diversity, when the best guess of a few years
  23 was that Microsoft would conquer all. More than ever,
  24 application developers need to keep their options open and
  25 targeting one platform only can be a recipe for commercial (or
  26 open source) disaster.
  27
  28 In the light of this change in the computing landscape,
  29 cross-platform development (or multiplatform development as we
  30 call it in this book) has become quite a hot and sometimes
  31 bitterly controversial topic. There are a number of ways to
  32 achieve the goal of portability, and many tools and languages to choose from.
  33 However, it is still generally agreed wisdom that C++ is the
  34 language of choice for desktop applications that depend on
  35 speed, ease of delivery and compatibility with billions of lines
  36 of existing code. Plus, there are many hundreds of thousands of
  37 developers now experienced in C++ programming.
  38
  39 The purpose of this book is to give you (the developer or
  40 interested manager) a solid grounding in one increasingly
  41 popular multiplatform solution: wxWindows. wxWindows is an open
  42 source GUI toolkit that has been on the scene since 1993 and has
  43 reached a high degree of stability and functionality. It is
  44 available for Linux (and most other Unix variants), all desktop
  45 versions of Microsoft Windows, and Mac. Other ports are in
  46 progress.
  47
  48 \section{Why wxWindows?}
  49
  50 While wxWindows is labelled a GUI development toolkit, it is in
  51 fact much more than that and has many features that are useful
  52 for many aspects of application development. This has to
  53 be the case, since the whole of a wxWindows application needs to
  54 be portable to different platforms, and not just the GUI
  55 component. So wxWindows provides classes for working with files
  56 and streams, multithreading, management of application settings,
  57 interprocess communication, and much else.
  58
  59 wxWindows is open source, with a vibrant developer and user
  60 community, and may be used in any proprietary or non-proprietary
  61 project. wxWindows encompasses the whole spectrum of users from
  62 one-man software outfits to big-name companies such as Xerox,
  63 Lockheed-Martin, Pratt and Whitney, and Motorola; from computer
  64 science departments to medical research groups; from ecological
  65 research, to the telecommunications industry, and in a myriad of
  66 open source projects.
  67
  68 When you use wxWindows you tap into an astonishing talent pool,
  69 with contributors from a wide range of backgrounds. Many aspects
  70 of application development that you might otherwise have to
  71 laboriously code yourself have been encapsulated by these
  72 developers in easy-to-use classes that you can plug into your
  73 code. Since there are a lot of people subscribed to the mailing
  74 lists, you'll enjoy discussions not only about wxWindows but
  75 often other matters close to the hearts of both experienced and
  76 inexperienced developers. And hopefully, one day you'll join in the
  77 success of wxWindows and become a contributor yourself!
  78
  79 \section{The history of wxWindows}
  80
  81 wxWindows was started in 1992 at the Artificial Intelligence
  82 Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, by Julian
  83 Smart. Julian was designing a kind of meta-CASE tool called
  84 Hardy which needed to run on Windows as well as X-based Unix
  85 workstations. The existing commercial cross-platform tools were
  86 deemed too expensive for an in-house experimental project, so
  87 the only alternative was to build one. wxWindows (w for Microsoft
  88 Windows, x for the X Windowing System) started off with support for Sun's XView
  89 and Microsoft's MFC 1.0, and
  90 AIAI allowed it to be released to the Internet. As it became
  91 clear that XView was doomed, a Motif port was written. Borland
  92 C++ users began to request a version that was not dependent on
  93 MFC, so the Windows port was rewritten to use the native Windows
  94 API. Over time, a small but enthusiastic community of wxWindows
  95 users was established and a mailing list set up. Many contributions
  96 and fixes were sent in. wxWindows gradually picked up more and more users
  97 from all over the world: academic, government, and corporate users
  98 who found that wxWindows offered a better product, and better support, than the
  99 commercial products they had looked at or used.
 100
 101 During 1995, Markus Holzem released his port of wxWindows to Xt,
 102 the X toolkit. This meant that software could be written that
 103 would work on X-based systems without the need for installing Motif,
 104 then still a commercial product.
 105
 106 In 1996, Julian left AIAI to pursue freelance consultancy, and
 107 there were few new releases. The seemingly unstoppable advance
 108 of Java was throwing some doubt on the future of C++ libraries.
 109 After many contributions, the wxWindows code was looking rather
 110 tired and in need of a serious rethink. At the start of 1997 it
 111 was make or break time - call it a day and move onto other
 112 things, or commit to re-engineering wxWindows with an API that
 113 was flexible enough for current and future user interface
 114 trends, with more sophisticated widgets, and making better use of C++.
 115 After a short debate, the effort was relaunched
 116 with Julian concentrating on the Windows port, and Markus on the combined Motif/Xt port,
 117 with both contributing to the common and generic parts. wxWindows 2 API
 118 ideas and code started to take shape.
 119
 120 During 1997 an effort to produce a standard Linux desktop
 121 environment was underway - GNOME. Its widget set was GTK+, built
 122 on top of X11 and it looked as though GTK+-based apps were to
 123 become the standard in the Linux universe. Its one major problem:
 124 GTK+ was C-based, and only a thin (and unportable) C++ wrapper
 125 existed for it. In August 1997, Wolfram Gloger made a suggestion
 126 that wxWindows 2 should be ported to GTK+ - Robert Roebling had
 127 initial reservations, but in general supported the idea. He
 128 became the prime mover for wxGTK and alphas were made available
 129 at the beginning of 1998. In May 1998 the Windows and GTK+ ports
 130 were merged and put into a CVS repository made available to all
 131 contributors to wxWindows: a decision that has accelerated the development
 132 effort tremendously. At this point Vadim Zeitlin became a prime
 133 mover on the Windows port and revamped much of the container
 134 and collection support.
 135
 136 Markus Holzem had to drop out of the wxWindows 2 effort in early
 137 1998, but Julian Smart started a new wxMotif port. The idea of
 138 an Xt port was dropped, since there remain two possibilities for
 139 free Unix programming with wxWindows: wxGTK, and wxMotif using
 140 the Motif clone Lesstif.
 141
 142 In September 1998, Stefan Csomor started a new version of the
 143 wxMac 2 port based in part on Greg Whitehead's initial work.
 144 In 1999 wxMac became ready for prime-time and Stefan has
 145 made it ready for MacOS X.
 146
 147 Also in 1998, Vaclav Slavik burst onto the wxWindows scene with his
 148 exciting wxHTML module that can now provide applications with (to name but a few) HTML help, superb
 149 About boxes, and report viewing and printing facilities. Vaclav has
 150 also written an enhanced resource system for wxWindows based on XML,
 151 that supports many more wxWindows features than the old WXR-based system.
 152
 153 Since 1998 Robin Dunn has been completely rewriting the old Python/wxWindows
 154 marriage and now wxPython is another force to be reckoned with in the
 155 development community.
 156
 157 %David Webster and Stefan Neis have been working on an OS/2 port, and
 158 %interest has been expressed in ports to other systems, such as
 159 %BeOS.
 160 %
 161 Development on wxWindows is concentrating on achieving more modularity,
 162 additional sophisticated GUI components, and compatibility with
 163 a wider range platforms. The wxStudio IDE project promises to
 164 make wxWindows development much easier and introduce wxWindows to people
 165 used to rapid application development environments under Microsoft Windows.
 166
 167 \section{How to use this book}
 168
 169 The chapters in this book are meant to be fairly independent, but
 170 as usual, the ordering reflects a progression from basic concepts
 171 to more advanced ones, so the first few chapters at least
 172 should be read consecutively for best effect.
 173
 174 Complete programs illustrating concepts in many of the chapters can be
 175 found in the accompanying CD-ROM, along with wxWindows itself and lots
 176 of extra, cool stuff.
 177
 178 We all hope that you enjoy reading this book and, most importantly,
 179 have fun using wxWindows to build great-looking, multiplatform applications!
 180