Installing wxWidgets for Windows ----------------------------------------------------------- This is wxWidgets for Microsoft Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT and later (2000, XP, Vista, 7, etc) and Windows CE. These installation notes can be found in docs/msw/install.txt in your wxWidgets distribution. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you experience problems installing, please re-read these instructions and other related files (changes.txt, readme.txt, FAQ) carefully before posting to wx-users list. If you are sure that you found a bug, please report it at wxWidgets Trac: http://trac.wxwidgets.org/newticket Please notice that often trying to correct the bug yourself is the quickest way to fix it. Even if you fail to do it, you may discover valuable information allowing us to fix it while doing it. We also give much higher priority to bug reports with patches fixing the problems so this ensures that your report will be addressed sooner. Table of Contents: - Installation - Building wxWidgets - Configuring the Build - Building Applications Using wxWidgets Installation ============ Please simply uncompress the .zip file manually into any directory. However we advise avoiding using directories with spaces in their names (notably "C:\Program Files") as this risks creating problems with makefiles and other command-line tools. In the majority of cases, you don't need to change the default library build configuration. If you wish to change some of the build options you need to edit the include/wx/msw/setup.h file enabling or disabling the features you would like to compile wxWidgets with[out]. NB: If you checked your sources from version control repository and didn't obtain them from a release file, the file above doesn't exist and you will need to copy include/wx/msw/setup0.h to include/wx/msw/setup.h. Notice that this file is later copied into a directory under lib for each of the build configurations which allows to have different build options for different configurations too. See "Configuring the Build" section for more information. Building wxWidgets ================== The following sections explain how to compile wxWidgets with each supported compiler, see the "Building Applications" section about the instructions for building your application using wxWidgets. Search for one of Microsoft/Borland/Watcom/Symantec/Cygwin/Mingw32 keywords to quickly locate the instructions for your compiler. Notice that the primary compilers for wxWidgets under MSW are Microsoft Visual C++ and GNU g++, other compilers are more rarely tested and might not work so please consider using one of these two if possible. All makefiles and project are located in build\msw directory. Where Compiled Files are Stored ------------------------------- After successful compilation you'll find the libraries in a subdirectory of lib directory named after the compiler and DLL/static settings. A couple of examples: lib\vc_lib VC++ compiled static libraries lib\vc_dll VC++ DLLs lib\bcc_lib Static libraries for Borland C++ lib\wat_dll Watcom C++ DLLs Names of compiled wxWidgets libraries follow this scheme: libraries that don't depend on GUI components begin with "wxbase" followed by a version number and, optionally, letters indicating Unicode compilation ('u') and a debug build ('d'). The last component is the name of the wxWidgets component (unless you build the library as single monolithic library; look for "Configuring the Build" below). This is a typical set of release ANSI build libraries (release versions on left, debug on right side): wxbase29.lib wxbase29d.lib wxbase29_net.lib wxbase29d_net.lib wxbase29_xml.lib wxbase29d_xml.lib wxmsw29_core.lib wxmsw29d_core.lib wxmsw29_html.lib wxmsw29d_html.lib wxmsw29_adv.lib wxmsw29d_adv.lib Their Unicode debug counterparts in wxUniversal build would be wxbase29ud.lib wxbase29ud_net.lib wxbase29ud_xml.lib (notice these libs are same for wxUniv and wxMSW) wxmswuniv29ud_core.lib wxmswuniv29ud_html.lib wxmswuniv29ud_adv.lib These directories also contain a subdirectory with the wx/setup.h header. This subdirectory is named after the port, Unicode, wxUniv and debug settings and you must add it to the include paths when compiling your application. Some examples: lib\vc_lib\msw\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxMSW lib\vc_lib\mswud\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxMSW, Unicode, debug lib\vc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxUniversal, debug Below are compiler specific notes followed by customizing instructions that apply to all compilers (search for "Configuring the Build"). Microsoft Visual C++ Compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- You may wish to visit http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B_Guide for a more informal and detailed description of the process summarized below. Please note that currently ready to use projeect files are provided for VC++ versions 6 through to 9 (also known as 6, 2003, 2005 and 2008). For VC++ 10 and 11 (2010 and 2012, respectively), you will need to import the existing VC9 project files. Using project files (VC++ 6 and later): 1. Unarchive wxWidgets-x.y.z-vc.zip, the VC++ 6 project makefiles (already included in wxMSW-x.y.z.zip and the setup version). 2. Open build\msw\wx.dsw, which has configurations for static compilation or DLL compilation, and each of these available in Unicode/ANSI, Debug/Release and wxUniversal or native variations. Choose the Win32 Debug or Win32 Release configuration (or any other that suits your needs) and use Batch Build to compile _all_ projects. If you know you won't need some of the libraries (e.g. the HTML part), you don't have to compile it. It will also produce similar variations on jpeg.lib, png.lib, tiff.lib, zlib.lib, and regex.lib. If you want to build DLL configurations in wx.dsw project you unfortunately need to build them in the proper order (jpeg, png, tiff, zlib, regex, expat, base, net, core, gl, html, media, qa, adv, xrc, aui, richtext, propgrid) manually because VC6 doesn't always respect the correct build order. Alternatively, use the special wx_dll.dsw project which adds the dependencies to force the correct order (but, because of this, doesn't work for the static libraries) or simply redo the build several times until all DLLs are linked correctly. 3. Open a sample project file, choose a configuration such as Win32 Debug using Build | Set Active Configuration..., and compile. The project files don't use precompiled headers, to save disk space, but you can switch PCH compiling on for greater speed. NOTE: you may also use samples/samples.dsw to access all sample projects without opening each workspace individually. You can use the Batch Build facility to make several samples at a time. Using makefiles: 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type: 'nmake -f makefile.vc' to make the wxWidgets core library as release DLL. See "Configuring the Build" for instruction how to build debug or static libraries. 2. Change directory to samples and type 'nmake -f makefile.vc' to make all the samples. You can also make them individually. Makefile notes: Use the 'clean' target to clean all objects, libraries and executables. Note (1): if you wish to use templates, please edit include\wx\msw\setup.h and set wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS to 0. Without this, the redefinition of 'new' will cause problems in the headers. Alternatively, #undef new before including template headers. You will also need to set wxUSE_IOSTREAMH to 0 if you will be using templates, to avoid the non-template stream files being included within wxWidgets. Note (2): libraries and applications generated with makefiles and project files are now (hopefully) compatible where static libraries are concerned, but please exercise caution nevertheless and if possible, use one method or the other. Note (3): some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler options. If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile. Note (4): to create your own IDE files, copy .dsp and .dsw files from an existing wxWidgets sample and adapt them, or visit http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B_Guide. Microsoft Visual C++ Compilation for 64-bit Windows ---------------------------------------------------------------- Visual Studio 2005 includes 64-bit compilers, though they are not installed by default; you need to select them during the installation. Both native 64-bit compilers and 32-bit hosted cross compilers are included, so you do not need a 64-bit machine to use them (though you do to run the created executables). Visual C++ Express Edition does not include 64-bit compilers. 64-bit compilers are also available in various SDKs, for example the .NET Framework SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/programming/64bit/devtools/ Using project files: 1. Open the solution file for the version you use: build\msw\wx_vc8.sln or wx_vc9.sln. 2. To add 64-bit targets, go to the 'Build' menu and choose 'Configuration Manager...'. In the 'Active solution platform' drop down choose '', then you can choose either 'Itanium' or 'x64'. For more detailed instructions see: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9yb4317s(en-us,vs.80).aspx Note: 64-bit targets created this way will use the build directory of the corresponding 32-bit target for some files. Therefore after building for one CPU it is necessary to clean the build before building the equivalent target for another CPU. We've reported the problem to MS but they say it is not possible to fix it. 3. To build, go to the 'Build' menu and choose 'Batch Build...'. Tick all the all the 'x64|Debug' or all the 'Itanium|Debug' projects, and click 'Build'. This will build a debug version of the static libs. The section above on Visual C++ in general has more information about adjusting the settings to build other configurations. 4. To compile one of the samples open one of the sample projects, such as samples\minimal\minimal_vc7.vcproj. Visual Studio will convert the project as in step 1, then add a 64-bit target as in step 2, and build. Using makefiles: 1. Open a 64-bit build command prompt, for either x64 or Itanium. Change directory to build\msw. Then for x64 type: nmake -f makefile.vc TARGET_CPU=X64 or for Itanium: nmake -f makefile.vc TARGET_CPU=IA64 This will build a debug version of wxWidgets DLLs. See "Configuring the build" for instruction how to build other configurations such as a release build or static libraries. 2. Change to the directory of one of the samples such as samples\minimal. Type the same command used to build the main library, for example for x64: nmake -f makefile.vc TARGET_CPU=X64 Notes: The versions of the VC++ 8 compiler included with some SDKs requires an additional library to be linked or the following error is received. LNK2001 unresolved external symbol __security_check_cookie If you receive this error add bufferoverflowu.lib to link, e.g.: nmake -f makefile.vc TARGET_CPU=X64 LDFLAGS=bufferoverflowu.lib See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=894573 for more information. Borland C++ Compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- The minimum version required is 5.5 (last version supported by BC++ 5.0 was 2.4.2), which can be downloaded for free from: http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_cbuilder.html We have found that the free Turbo Explorer and commercial BDS work fine; the debugger is very good. To avoid linker errors you will need to add -DSHARED=1 to the makefile line for the library The version 5.6 included in Borland C++ Builder 2006 works as well after the following small change: please remove the test for __WINDOWS__ from line 88 of the file BCCDIR\include\stl\_threads.h. Compiling using the makefiles: 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'make -f makefile.bcc' to make the wxWidgets core library. Ignore the compiler warnings. This produces a couple of libraries in the lib\bcc_lib directory. 2. Change directory to a sample or demo such as samples\minimal, and type 'make -f makefile.bcc'. This produces a windows exe file - by default in the bcc_mswd subdirectory. Note (1): the wxWidgets makefiles assume dword structure alignment. Please make sure that your own project or makefile settings use the same alignment, or you could experience mysterious crashes. To change the alignment, change CPPFLAGS in build\msw\config.bcc. Note (2): If you wish debug messages to be sent to the console in debug mode, edit makefile.bcc and change /aa to /Tpe in link commands. Using the Debugger and IDE in BDS or Turbo Explorer --------------------------------------------------- Doubleclick / open samples\minimal\borland.bdsproj. The current version is to be used with a dynamic build of wxWidgets-made by running make -f Makefile.bcc -DBUILD=debug -DSHARED=1 in wxWidgets\build\msw. You also need the wxWidgets\lib\bcc_dll directory in your PATH. The debugger tracks your source and also traces into the wxWidgets sources. To use this to debug other samples, copy the borland_ide.cpp and borland.bdsproj files, then replace all occurrences of "minimal" with the name of the new project files Compilation succeeds with CBuilderX personal edition and CBuilder6, but you may have to copy make.exe from the 5.5 download to the new bin directory. Compiling using the IDE files for Borland C++ 5.0 and using CBuilder IDE (v1-v6): not supported ** REMEMBER ** In all of your wxWidgets applications, your source code should include the following preprocessor directive: #ifdef __BORLANDC__ #pragma hdrstop #endif (check the samples -- e.g., \wx2\samples\minimal\minimal.cpp -- for more details) Watcom C++ 10.6/11 and OpenWatcom Compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'wmake -f makefile.wat' to make the wxWidgets core library. 2. Change directory to samples\minimal and type 'wmake -f makefile.wat' to make this sample. Repeat for other samples of interest. Note (1): if variant.cpp is compiled with date/time class options, the linker gives up. So the date/time option is switched off for Watcom C++. Also, wxAutomationObject is not compiled with Watcom C++ 10. Note (2): RawBitmaps won't work at present because they use unsupported template classes Note (3): if Watcom can't read the precompiled header when building a sample, try deleting .pch files in build\msw\wat_* and compiling the sample again. Note (4): wxUSE_STD_STRING is disabled in wx/string.h for Watcom as this compiler doesn't come with standard C++ library headers by default. If you install STLPort or another STL implementation, you'll need to edit wx/string.h and remove the check for Digital Mars in it (search for __WATCOM__). Cygwin/MinGW Compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- wxWidgets supports Cygwin (formerly GnuWin32) betas and releases, and MinGW. Cygwin can be downloaded from: http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ and MinGW from: http://www.mingw.org/ Both Cygwin and MinGW can be used with configure (assuming you have MSYS installed in case of MinGW). You will need new enough MinGW version, preferably MinGW 3.4.2+ (ships with gcc3). NOTE: some notes specific to old Cygwin (< 1.1.x) are at the end of this section (see OLD VERSIONS) There are two methods of compiling wxWidgets, by using the makefiles provided or by using 'configure'. Retrieve and install the latest version of Cygwin, or MinGW, as per the instructions with either of these packages. If using MinGW, you can download the add-on MSYS package to provide Unix-like tools that you'll need to build wxWidgets using configure. Using makefiles Directly ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: The makefile.gcc makefiles are for compilation under MinGW using Windows command interpreter (command.com/cmd.exe), they won't work in other environments (such as UNIX or Unix-like, e.g. MSYS where you have to use configure instead, see the section below) Use the makefile.gcc files for compiling wxWidgets and samples, e.g. to compile a debugging version of wxWidgets: > cd c:\wx\build\msw > mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug > cd c:\wx\samples\minimal > mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug (See below for more options.) Notice that Windows command interpreter (cmd.exe) and mingw32-make must be used, using Bash (sh.exe) and make.exe from MSYS will only work when using configure-based build procedure described below! You can also use the 'strip' command to reduce executable/dll size (note that stripping an executable/dll will remove debug information!). All targets have 'clean' targets to allow removal of object files and other intermediate compiler files. Using configure ---------------------------------------------------------------- Instead of using the makefiles, you can use the configure system to generate appropriate makefiles, as used on Unix and Mac OS X systems. Change directory to the root of the wxWidgets distribution, make a build directory, and run configure and make in this directory. For example: cd $WXWIN mkdir build-debug cd build-debug ../configure --with-msw --enable-debug --enable-debug_gdb --disable-shared make make install % This step is optional, see note (6) below. cd samples/minimal make ./minimal.exe Notes: 1. See also the Cygwin/MinGW on the web site or CD-ROM for further information about using wxWidgets with these compilers. 2. libwx.a is 100 MB or more - but much less if compiled with no debug info (-g0) and level 4 optimization (-O4). 3. There's a bug in MinGW headers for some early distributions. in include/windows32/defines.h, where it says: #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA (LPSTR)-1L) it should say: #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA ((LPSTR)-1L) (a missing bracket). 4. OpenGL support should work with MinGW as-is. However, if you wish to generate import libraries appropriate either for the MS OpenGL libraries or the SGI OpenGL libraries, go to include/wx/msw/gl and use: dlltool -k -d opengl.def -llibopengl.a for the SGI DLLs, or dlltool -k -d opengl32.def -llibopengl32.a and similarly for glu[32].def. 5. The 'make install' step is optional, and copies files as follows: /usr/local/lib - wxmswXYZd.dll.a and wxmswXYZd.dll /usr/local/include/wx - wxWidgets header files /usr/local/bin - wx-config You may need to do this if using wx-config with the default root path. 6. With Cygwin, you can invoke gdb --nw myfile.exe to debug an executable. If there are memory leaks, they will be flagged when the program quits. You can use Cygwin gdb to debug MinGW executables. 7. Note that gcc's precompiled headers do not work on current versions of Cygwin. If your version of Cygwin is affected you will need to use the --disable-precomp-headers configure option. OLD VERSIONS: - Modify the file wx/src/cygnus.bat (or mingw32.bat or mingegcs.bat) to set up appropriate variables, if necessary mounting drives. Run it before compiling. - For Cygwin, make sure there's a \tmp directory on your Windows drive or bison will crash (actually you don't need bison for ordinary wxWidgets compilation: a pre-generated .c file is supplied). - If using GnuWin32 b18, you will need to copy windres.exe from e.g. the MinGW distribution, to a directory in your path. DigitalMars C++ Compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- Digital Mars compiler is no longer updated as the project is discontinued. wxWidgets 2.8 was the last version to compile with this compiler. Configuring the Build ================================================================ So far the instructions only explain how to build release DLLs of wxWidgets and did not cover any configuration. It is possible to change many aspects of the build, including debug/release and static/dynamic settings. Notice that in the previous versions of wxWidgets it was possible to build the library in either ANSI or Unicode mode but in wxWidgets 2.9 and later only a single, combined, build mode exists. It is still possible to set UNICODE=0 to disable Unicode support entirely but it is strongly not recommended and should be never necessary. Changing the Settings ---------------------------------------------------------------- There are two ways to modify the settings: either by passing the values as arguments when invoking make or by editing build\msw\config.$(compiler) file where $(compiler) is same extension as the makefile you use has (see below). The latter is good for setting options that never change in your development process (e.g. GCC_VERSION or VENDOR). If you want to build several versions of wxWidgets and use them side by side, the former method is better. Settings in config.* files are shared by all makefiles (samples, contrib, main library), but if you pass the options as arguments, you must use same arguments you used for the library when building samples or contrib libraries! Examples of invoking make in Unicode debug build (other options described below are set analogically): Visual C++: > nmake -f makefile.vc BUILD=debug Borland C++: > make -f makefile.bcc -DBUILD=debug (Note that you have to use -D to set the variable, unlike in other make tools!) Watcom C/C++: > wmake -f makefile.wat BUILD=debug MinGW using native makefiles: > mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug MinGW using configure: > ./configure --enable-debug (see ./configure --help on details; configure is not covered in this section) Cygwin using configure: > ./configure --disable-precomp-headers --enable-debug (use --disable-precomp-headers if Cygwin doesn't support precompiled headers) Brief explanation of options and possible values is in every build\msw\config.* file; more detailed description follows. Basic Options ---------------------------------------------------------------- BUILD=release Builds release version of the library. It differs from default 'debug' in lack of appended 'd' in name of library and uses the release CRT libraries instead of debug ones. Notice that even release builds do include debug information by default, see DEBUG_FLAG for more information about it. SHARED=1 Build shared libraries (DLLs). By default, DLLs are not built (SHARED=0). UNICODE=0 To completely disable Unicode support (default is UNICODE=1). It should not be necessary to do this unless, perhaps, you still wish to target Win9x systems and can't use MSLU (which requires MSLU=1) for some reason. This option affect name of the library ('u' is appended in the default Unicode build) and the directory where the library and setup.h are store (ditto). WXUNIV=1 Build wxUniversal instead of native wxMSW (see http://www.wxwidgets.org/wxuniv.htm for more information). Advanced Options ---------------------------------------------------------------- MONOLITHIC=1 Starting with version 2.5.1, wxWidgets has the ability to be built as several smaller libraries instead of single big one as used to be the case in 2.4 and older versions. This is called "multilib build" and is the default behaviour of makefiles. You can still build single library ("monolithic build") by setting MONOLITHIC variable to 1. USE_GUI=0 Disable building GUI parts of the library, build only wxBase components used by console applications. Note that if you leave USE_GUI=1 then both wxBase and GUI libraries are built. If you are building monolithic library, then you should set wxUSE_GUI to 1 in setup.h. USE_OPENGL=1 Build wxmsw29_gl.lib library with OpenGL integration class wxGLCanvas. You must also modify your setup.h to #define wxUSE_GLCANVAS 1. Note that OpenGL library is always built as additional library, even in monolithic build! USE_HTML=0 Do not build wxHTML library. If MONOLITHIC=1, then you must also #define wxUSE_HTML 1 in setup.h. USE_XRC=0 Do not build XRC resources library. If MONOLITHIC=1, then you must also #define wxUSE_HTML 1 in setup.h. RUNTIME_LIBS=static Links static version of C and C++ runtime libraries into the executable, so that the program does not depend on DLLs provided with the compiler (e.g. Visual C++'s msvcrt.dll or Borland's cc3250mt.dll). Caution: Do not use static runtime libraries when building DLL (SHARED=1)! MSLU=1 Enables MSLU (Microsoft Layer for Unicode). This setting makes sense only if used together with UNICODE=1. If you want to be able to use Unicode version on Windows9x, you will need MSLU (Microsoft Layer for Unicode) runtime DLL and import lib. The former can be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part of the latest Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com for details). An alternative implementation of import library can be downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net - unlike the official one, this one works with other compilers and does not require 300+ MB Platform SDK update. DEBUG_FLAG=0 DEBUG_FLAG=1 DEBUG_FLAG=2 Specifies the level of debug support in wxWidgets. Notice that this is independent from both BUILD and DEBUG_INFO options. By default always set to 1 meaning that debug support is enabled: asserts are compiled into the code (they are inactive by default in release builds of the application but can be enabled), wxLogDebug() and wxLogTrace() are available and __WXDEBUG__ is defined. Setting it to 0 completely disables all debugging code in wxWidgets while setting it to 2 enables even the time consuming assertions and checks which are deemed to be unsuitable for production environment. DEBUG_INFO=0 DEBUG_INFO=1 This option affects whether debugging information is generated. If omitted or set to 'default' its value is determined the value of the BUILD option. TARGET_CPU=X64|IA64 (VC++ only.) Set this variable to build for x86_64 systems. If unset, x86 build is performed. VENDOR= Set this to a short string identifying your company if you are planning to distribute wxWidgets DLLs with your application. Default value is 'custom'. This string is included as part of DLL name. wxWidgets DLLs contain compiler name, version information and vendor name in them. For example wxmsw290_core_bcc_custom.dll is one of DLLs build using Borland C++ with default settings. If you set VENDOR=mycorp, the name will change to wxmsw290_core_bcc_mycorp.dll. CFG= Sets configuration name so that you can have multiple wxWidgets builds with different setup.h settings coexisting in same tree. See "Object and library directories" below for more information. COMPILER_PREFIX= If you build with multiple versions of the same compiler, you can put their outputs into directories like "vc6_lib", "vc8_lib" etc. instead of "vc_lib" by setting this variable to e.g. "vc6". This is merely a convenience variable, you can achieve the same effect (but different directory names) with the CFG option. Compiler-Specific Options ---------------------------------------------------------------- * MinGW If you are using gcc-2.95 instead of gcc3, you must set GCC_VERSION to 2.95. In build\msw\config.gcc, change > GCC_VERSION = 3 to > GCC_VERSION = 2.95 * Visual C++ DEBUG_RUNTIME_LIBS=0 DEBUG_RUNTIME_LIBS=1 If set to 1, msvcrtd.dll is used, if to 0, msvcrt.dll is used. By default msvcrtd.dll is used only if the executable contains debug info and msvcrt.dll if it doesn't. It is sometimes desirable to build with debug info and still link against msvcrt.dll (e.g. when you want to ship the app to customers and still have usable .pdb files with debug information) and this setting makes it possible. Fine-tuning the Compiler ---------------------------------------------------------------- All makefiles have variables that you can use to specify additional options passed to the compiler or linker. You won't need this in most cases, but if you do, simply add desired flags to CFLAGS (for C compiler), CXXFLAGS (for C++ compiler), CPPFLAGS (for both C and C++ compiler) and LDFLAGS (the linker). Object and Library Directories ---------------------------------------------------------------- All object files produced during a library build are stored in a directory under build\msw. Its name is derived from the build settings and CFG variable and from the compiler name. Examples of directory names: build\msw\bcc_msw SHARED=0 build\msw\bcc_mswdll SHARED=1 build\msw\bcc_mswunivd SHARED=0, WXUNIV=1, BUILD=debug build\msw\vc_mswunivd ditto, with Visual C++ Libraries and DLLs are copied into a subdirectory of the lib directory with a name derived from the compiler and a static/DLL setting and setup.h into a directory with a name that contains other settings: lib\bcc_msw lib\bcc_lib\msw\wx\setup.h lib\bcc_dll lib\bcc_dll\msw\wx\setup.h lib\bcc_lib lib\bcc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h lib\vc_lib lib\vc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h Each lib\ subdirectory has wx subdirectory with setup.h as seen above. This file is copied there from include\wx\msw\setup.h (and if it doesn't exist, from include\wx\msw\setup0.h) and this is the copy of setup.h that is used by all samples and should be used by your apps as well. If you are doing changes to setup.h, you should do them in this file, _not_ in include\wx\msw\setup.h. If you set CFG to something, the value is appended to directory names. E.g. for CFG=MyBuild, you'll have object files in build\msw\bcc_mswMyBuild build\msw\bcc_mswdllMyBuild etc. and libraries in lib\bcc_libMyBuild lib\bcc_dllMyBuild etc. By now it is clear what CFG is for: builds with different CFG settings don't share any files and they use different setup.h files. For example, this allows you to have two static debug builds, one with wxUSE_SOCKETS=0 and one with sockets enabled (without CFG, both of them would be put into same directory and there would be conflicts between the files). Building Applications Using wxWidgets ===================================== NB: The makefiles and project files provided with wxWidgets samples show which flags should be used when building applications using wxWidgets so in case of a problem, e.g. if the instructions here are out of date, you can always simply copy a makefile or project file from samples\minimal or some other sample and adapt it to your application. Independently of the compiler and make/IDE you are using you must do the following to use wxWidgets: * Add $WXWIN/include to the - compiler - resource compiler include paths. * Define the following symbols for the preprocessor: - __WXMSW__ to ensure you use the correct wxWidgets port. - _UNICODE unless you want to use deprecated ANSI build of wxWidgets. - NDEBUG if you want to build in release mode, i.e. disable asserts. - WXUSINGDLL if you are using DLL build of wxWidgets. * If using MSVC 6 or 7 only (i.e. not for later versions), also define wxUSE_RC_MANIFEST=1 and WX_CPU_X86. * Add $WXWIN/lib/prefix_lib-or-dll to the libraries path. The prefix depends on the compiler, by default it is "vc" for MSVC, "gcc" for g++ and so on. * Add the list of libraries to link with to the linker input. The exact list depends on which libraries you use and whether you built wxWidgets in monolithic or default multlib mode and basically should include all the relevant libraries from the directory above, e.g. "wxmsw29ud_core.lib wxbase29ud.lib wxtiffd.lib wxjpegd.lib wxpngd.lib wxzlibd.lib wxregexud.lib wxexpatd.lib" for a debug build of an application using the core library only (all wxWidgets applications use the base library). Microsoft Visual C++ users can simplify the linker setup by prepending the directory $WXWIN/msvc to the include path (it must come before $WXWIN/include directory!) and omitting the last step: the required libraries will be linked in automatically using the "#pragma comment(lib)" feature of this compiler.