docs/readme.txt

   1 wxWindows 2.5.0
   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.
   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 1800-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 currently supports the following platforms:
  35
  36 - Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP
  37 - Most Unix variants with GTK+
  38 - Most Unix variants with X11
  39 - Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
  40 - MacOS 9.x and 10.x
  41 - OS/2 (alpha)
  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 In the following, x.y.z represents the current version number.
  53
  54 wxWindows for GTK+ distribution
  55 -------------------------------
  56
  57 wxGTK-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxGTK source distribution. You will
  58                                    need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
  59                                    (see below)
  60 wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tar.gz           wxGTK demos source
  61 wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tar.gz         wxGTK samples source
  62 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
  63 wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
  64 wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
  65 wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          Add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM
  66
  67 wxWindows for X11 and Motif distribution
  68 ----------------------------------------
  69
  70 wxX11-x.y.z.tar.gz                 wxX11 and wxMotif source distribution, without
  71                                    documentation.
  72
  73 wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
  74 -------------------------------------
  75
  76 setup.exe, setup-*.bin             Setup files in floppy-disk-sized chunks
  77 wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
  78                                    setup files
  79 wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the files that are
  80                                    in the setup distribution
  81
  82 As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
  83
  84 - Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
  85 - a Dialog Editor binary;
  86 - a Tex2RTF binary;
  87 - Life! sample binary.
  88
  89 wxWindows for MacOS distribution
  90 --------------------------------
  91
  92 wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
  93                                    source files (excludes documentation)
  94 wxMac-x.y.z.tar.gz                 Gzipped tar archive containing all
  95                                    source files (excludes documentation).
  96                                    You might prefer this format if building on
  97                                    MacOS X, since it preserves file permissions.
  98
  99 wxWindows for OS/2 distribution
 100 -------------------------------
 101
 102 wxOS2-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all source files
 103                                    (excludes documentation)
 104
 105 Documentation files
 106 -------------------
 107
 108 wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
 109 wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
 110 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
 111 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
 112 wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
 113                                    use with the helpview utility)
 114
 115 Installation
 116 ------------
 117
 118 wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
 119 the samples or write your own applications.
 120 For installation information, please see the install.txt file
 121 in the individual directories:
 122
 123   docs/msw
 124   docs/gtk
 125   docs/motif
 126   docs/mac
 127   docs/x11
 128   docs/mgl
 129   docs/os2
 130
 131 Licence information
 132 -------------------
 133
 134 For licensing information, please see the files:
 135
 136   docs/preamble.txt
 137   docs/licence.txt
 138   docs/licendoc.txt
 139   docs/gpl.txt
 140   docs/lgpl.txt
 141
 142 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 143 proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
 144 addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
 145 the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
 146 distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
 147 don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
 148 commercial applications using wxWindows.
 149
 150 However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
 151 of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
 152 GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
 153 notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
 154 against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section 6.
 155 which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
 156 linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamically and
 157 include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
 158 already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
 159 If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will
 160 contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
 161
 162 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 163 for libtiff license details.
 164
 165 If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
 166 contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
 167 the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
 168
 169 If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
 170 support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
 171 regular expression library copyright.
 172
 173 Documentation
 174 -------------
 175
 176 See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
 177
 178 See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
 179
 180 See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
 181
 182 The wxWindows bug database can be browsed at:
 183
 184   http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
 185
 186 The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
 187 The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
 188
 189 Further information
 190 -------------------
 191
 192 The wxWindows Web site is located at:
 193
 194   http://www.wxwindows.org
 195
 196 The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
 197
 198   ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
 199
 200 A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
 201 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 202 material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
 203 web site.
 204
 205 Have fun!
 206
 207 The wxWindows Team, November 2002
 208