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[wxWidgets.git] / docs / readme.txt

diff --git a/docs/readme.txt b/docs/readme.txt
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--- a/docs/readme.txt
+++ b/docs/readme.txt
@@ -1,154 +1,127 @@
-wxWindows 2.3.3
----------------
+               wxWidgets 2.9.5 Release Notes
+               =============================

 
 

-*** Please note that this is an UNSTABLE DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT.
-*** Unless you need the new features and bug fixes, you may wish to
-*** use the official 2.2.x stable series.
+Welcome to the latest release of wxWidgets, a free cross-platform C++
+framework for writing advanced GUI applications using native controls.

 
 

-Welcome to wxWindows 2, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
-framework for writing advanced GUI applications using (where
-possible) the native controls.

 
 

-In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as
-frames, scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons,
-device contexts, printing, splitter windows and so on, there are
-wrappers for common file operations, and facilities for writing
-TCP/IP applications, thread handling, and more. Where certain
-features are not available on a platform, such as MDI and tree
-controls on Unix, they are emulated.
+In addition to common and advanced GUI facilities such as frames,
+scrolling windows, toolbars, tree controls, icons, device contexts,
+printing, splitter windows and so on, there are wrappers for common
+file operations, facilities for writing network applications,
+thread handling, and so on. You can learn more about wxWidgets at

 
 

-A detailed 1700-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
-and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
+        http://www.wxwidgets.org/

 
 

-For a quick start, point your Web browser at docs/html/index.htm
-for a list of important documents and samples.

 
 

-Changes in this release
------------------------
+wxWidgets sources are available for download from

 
 

-Please see changes.txt for details.
+        https://sourceforge.net/projects/wxwindows/files/2.9.5/

 
 

-Platforms supported
--------------------
+or

 
 

-wxWindows 2 currently supports the following platforms:
+        ftp://ftp.wxwidgets.org/pub/2.9.5/

 
 

-- Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (see msw/winxp.txt)
-- Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
-- Most Unix variants with GTK+
-- MacOS
-- Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
-- DOS with MGL (beta)
+Please see the "Files" section below for the description of various
+files available at these locations.

 
 

-Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
-file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) for details.
-See also http://www.wxwindows.org/platform.htm.

 
 

-Files
------
+A detailed reference manual including in-depth overviews for various
+topics is supplied in various formats and can be accessed online at

 
 

-The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
-target system. Documentation is available mainly in zip format.
-Some add-on libraries (such as the Object Graphics Library) are
-available in zip form only. In the following, x.y.z represents
-the current version number.
+        http://docs.wxwidgets.org/2.9.5/

 
 

-wxWindows for GTK distribution
-------------------------------

 
 

-wxGTK-x.y.z.tgz                    wxGTK source distribution. You will
-                                   need the HTML, HTB and/or PDF documentation
-                                   (see below)
-wxGTK-demos-x.y.z.tgz              wxGTK demos source
-wxGTK-samples-x.y.z.tgz            wxGTK samples source
-wxGTK-x.y.z-0.src.rpm              wxGTK Linux source as an RPM, without manuals
-wxGTK-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm             wxGTK Linux binaries as an RPM, without manuals
-wxGTK-devel-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm       wxGTK Linux minimum development system as an RPM
+Note about naming: while 2.9.5 is called a "development" release,
+this only means that API is not guaranteed to remain unchanged in the
+subsequent 2.9.x releases (although it is still likely that it will),
+unlike in the stable 2.8.x branch. We believe the current version is
+stable and suitable for use in production environment.

 
 

-wxWindows for Motif distribution
---------------------------------

 
 

-wxMotif-x.y.z.tgz                  wxMotif source distribution, without
-                                   documentation.

 
 

-wxWindows for X11 distribution
-------------------------------
+Changes in this release
+-----------------------
+
+This release contains several years worth of improvements compared
+to 2.8 version. Notably, Unicode support has been completely
+overhauled and made much easier to use. Debugging support, including
+when using a release build of the library, was much improved making
+it less likely that you use the library incorrectly. Many new GUI
+and base classes have been added or improved.
+
+Compared to the previous 2.9.3 release the most important change is
+the addition of new, still experimental, GTK+ 3 support in wxGTK.
+But the main focus of this release is on incremental improvements
+and fixing defects in preparation for 3.0 release. In particular,
+wxOSX/Cocoa port has been significantly improved.

 
 

-wxX11-x.y.z.tgz                    wxX11 source distribution, without
-                                   documentation.
+Please see the file docs/changes.txt for more details and make sure
+to read the section "Incompatible changes since 2.8" if you upgrade
+from a previous wxWidgets release.

 
 

-wxWindows for MS Windows distribution
--------------------------------------
+This release introduces many important changes and we are looking
+forward to your feedback about them. In particular please let us
+know about any regressions compared to the previous versions (see
+the section "Bug reporting" below) so that we could fix them before
+3.0 release.

 
 

-setup.exe, setup.w*                Setup files (Windows 95/98, NT)
-                                   in floppy-disk-sized chunks
-wxMSW-x.y.z-setup.zip              Zip archive containing the
-                                   setup files
-wxMSW-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all the
-                                   files that are in the setup
-                                   distribution

 
 

-wxWindows for MacOS distribution
---------------------------------
+Platforms supported
+-------------------

 
 

-wxMac-x.y.z.zip                    Zip archive containing all
-                                   source files (excludes documentation)
+wxWidgets currently supports the following primary platforms:

 
 

-As well as the core source, the wxMSW distribution contains:
+- Windows 95/98/ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
+- Most Unix variants using the GTK+ toolkit (version 2.6 or newer)
+- Mac OS X (10.4 or newer) using either Carbon or Cocoa

 
 

-- Windows HTML Help versions of the documentation (docs/htmlhelp);
-- Object Graphics Library, in contrib/src/ogl;
-- a Dialog Editor binary;
-- a Tex2RTF binary;
-- Life! sample binary;
-- the JPEG library source;
-- the TIFF library source.
+There is some support for the following platforms:

 
 

-Documentation files
--------------------
+- Most Unix variants with X11
+- Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
+- Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1.2
+- Most Unix variants with GTK+ 3 (still in development)
+- OS/2
+- Windows CE (Pocket PC)
+
+Most popular C++ compilers are supported; see the install.txt
+file for each platform (available via docs/html/index.htm) and
+http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Supported_Platforms for the most up to
+date status.
+
+
+Files
+-----
+
+wxWidgets is distributed in source form in several archive formats.
+ZIP and 7z archives are for Microsoft Windows users and contain the
+files with DOS/Windows line endings while the compressed tar archives
+for Unix systems users (including OS X) and contain the files with
+Unix line endings. Please notice that some Windows tools still don't
+accept files with Unix line endings and that compiling sources with
+DOS line endings under Unix will fail, so please choose the correct
+file for your system.
+
+In addition to the sources, documentation in HTML, CHM and HTB
+(wxWidgets help viewer) formats is provided as well as an installer
+for Microsoft Windows. Notice that you will still need to compile
+wxWidgets even when using the installer.
+
+Experimentally, we also supply binaries of wxMSW libraries built
+with several versions of Microsoft Visual C++ compiler for this
+release. They are available in the "binaries" subdirectory, see
+the description of the files in the README file there.

 
 

-wxWindows-x.y.z-WinHelp.zip        WinHelp documentation
-wxWindows-x.y.z-PDF.zip            Acrobat PDF documentation
-wxWindows-x.y.z-HTML.zip           HTML documentation
-wxWindows-x.y.z-HTMLHelp.zip       Windows HTML Help documentation
-wxWindows-x.y.z-HTB.zip            wxHTML documentation (for
-                                   use with the helpview utility)
-wxWindows-x.y.z-Word.zip           MS Word documentation (currently,
-                                   database class documentation only)
-wxWindows-x.y.z-DocSource.zip      Documentation source code (not required)
-
-Add-ons
--------
-
-wxWindows-x.y.z-cw.zip             Metrowerks CodeWarrior 4.1 project files
-wxWindows-x.y.z-wat.zip            Watcom C++ project files
-wxWindows-x.y.z-vc.zip             Visual C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
-wxWindows-x.y.z-bc.zip             Borland C++ project files (in wxMSW distr.)
-jpeg.zip                           JPEG library (already included
-                                   in most distributions)
-tiff.zip                           TIFF library (already included
-                                   in most distributions)
-ogl3.zip                           Optional Object Graphics Library
-mmedia.zip                         Optional MMedia library (Motif, GTK, MSW)
-stc.zip                            Optional wxStyledTextCtrl library
-                                   (Motif, GTK, MSW)
-tex2rtf2.zip                       Tex2RTF documentation tool
-wxGTK-gl-x.y.z-0.i386.rpm          add-on OpenGL binary as an RPM

 
 Installation
 ------------
 
 
 Installation
 ------------
 

-wxWindows 2 needs to be compiled before you can test out
-the samples or write your own applications.
-For installation information, please see the install.txt file
-in the individual directories:
+wxWidgets needs to be compiled before you can test out the samples
+or write your own applications. For installation information, please
+see the install.txt file in the docs subdirectory appropriate for
+the platform you use.

 
 

-  docs/msw
-  docs/gtk
-  docs/motif
-  docs/mac
-  docs/x11
-  docs/mgl

 
 Licence information
 -------------------
 
 Licence information
 -------------------


@@ -160,67 +133,84 @@ For licensing information, please see the files:
   docs/licendoc.txt
   docs/gpl.txt
   docs/lgpl.txt
   docs/licendoc.txt
   docs/gpl.txt
   docs/lgpl.txt

+  docs/xserver.txt

 
 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
 
 Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of

-proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWindows in
-addition to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary,
-the licence is LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted
-distribution of application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you
-don't have to distribute any source if you wish to write
-commercial applications using wxWindows. 
-
-However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif) version
-of your application, don't forget that it is linked against
-GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without* exception
-notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
-against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefuly LGPL, section 6.
-which describes conditions for distribution of closed source applications
-linked against LGPL library. Basically you should link dynamicaly and
-include source code of LGPL libraries with your product (unless it is
-already present in user's system - like glibc usually is).
-If compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWindows library will 
-contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
+proprietary/commercial applications to use wxWidgets in addition
+to those writing GPL'ed applications. In summary, the licence is
+LGPL plus a clause allowing unrestricted distribution of
+application binaries. To answer a FAQ, you don't have to
+distribute any source if you wish to write commercial
+applications using wxWidgets.
+
+However, if you distribute wxGTK or wxMotif (with Lesstif)
+version of your application, don't forget that it is linked
+against GTK+ (or Lesstif) which is covered by LGPL *without*
+exception notice. Under Linux systems your app is probably linked
+against LGPL glibc as well. Please read carefully LGPL, section
+6. which describes conditions for distribution of closed source
+applications linked against LGPL library. Basically you should
+link dynamically and include source code of LGPL libraries with
+your product (unless it is already present in user's system -
+like glibc usually is).

 
 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
 
 If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT

-for libtiff license details.
+for libtiff licence details.
+
+If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program
+should contain following sentence: "This software is based in
+part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group". See
+src/jpeg/README for details.

 
 

-If you use JPEG image handler, documentation for your program should
-contain following sentence: "This software is based in part on the work of
-the Independent JPEG Group". See src/jpeg/README for details.
+If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular
+expressions support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT
+file for Henry Spencer's regular expression library copyright.
+
+If you use wxXML classes or XRC, see src/expat/COPYING for licence details.

 
 

-If you use wxRegEx class on a system without native regular expressions
-support (i.e. MS Windows), see src/regex/COPYRIGHT file for Henry Spencer's
-regular expression library copyright.

 
 Documentation
 -------------
 
 
 Documentation
 -------------
 

-See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
+wxWidgets documentation is available online at
+http://docs.wxwidgets.org/2.9.5/ and can also be downloaded in HTML
+format. To generate documentation in other formats (PDF, CHM, ...)
+please use the scripts in docs/doxygen directory.
+
+
+Bug reporting
+-------------
+
+The wxWidgets bug tracker can be browsed at:

 
 

-See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWindows 2.
+    http://trac.wxwidgets.org/report

 
 

-See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
+Please use the search function of our Trac installation to find
+any possibly relevant bugs before reporting new ones. Also 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.

 
 

-The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
-The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.

 
 Further information
 -------------------
 
 
 Further information
 -------------------
 

-The wxWindows Web site is located at:
+The wxWidgets Web site is located at:

 
 

-  http://www.wxwindows.org
+  http://www.wxwidgets.org/

 
 

-The main wxWindows ftp site is at:
+The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:

 
 

-  ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin
+  ftp://ftp.wxwidgets.org/pub/

 
 

-A wxWindows CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
+A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML

 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
 front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other

-material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWindows
+material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets

 web site.
 
 Have fun!
 
 web site.
 
 Have fun!
 

-The wxWindows Team, 10th June, 2001
-
+The wxWidgets Team, July 2012