-wxWindows 2.0
--------------
+wxWidgets 2.5.2
+---------------
+
+*** 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 2.4.x stable series. You are still encouraged
+*** to try the releases from 2.5.x branch, of course, and unstable
+*** doesn't mean that they crash all the time -- just that the API
+*** may change in backwards incompatible way. If this doesn't frighten
+*** you, do try this release and please let us know what you think!
+
+Welcome to wxWidgets, 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.
-Welcome to wxWindows 2.0, a sophisticated cross-platform C++
-framework for writing GUI applications.
+A detailed 1800-page reference manual is supplied in HTML, PDF
+and Windows Help form: see the docs hierarchy.
+
+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
+-----------------------
+
+Please see changes.txt for details.
Platforms supported
-------------------
-wxWindows 2.0 currently supports the following platforms:
+wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:
+
+- Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Pocket PC
+- Most Unix variants with GTK+ 1 and GTK+ 2
+- Most Unix variants with X11 (beta)
+- Most Unix variants with Motif/Lesstif
+- MacOS 9.x and 10.x using Carbon (10.3 and above preferred)
+- MacOS 10.x using Cocoa (beta)
+- OS/2 (beta)
-- Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT
-- Unix with Motif/Lesstif
-- Unix with GTK+
+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.wxwidgets.org/platform.htm.
Files
-----
-Depending on what you downloaded, you may have one or more of
-these ports. You may unarchive any or all of the ports into
-the same directory hierarchy. The zip archive set comprises the
-following:
-
-wx200gen.zip Generic source code and samples (required)
-wx200msw.zip Windows-specific source code
-wx200mot.zip Motif-specific source code
-wx200gtk.zip GTK-specific source code
-wx200doc.zip Documentation source code (not required)
-wx200hlp.zip WinHelp documentation
-wx200pdf.zip Acrobat PDF documentation
-wx200htm.zip HTML documentation
-wx200vc.zip MS VC++ 5.0 project files
-wx200cw.zip Metrowerks CodeWarrior project files
+The distribution is available in archive formats appropriate to the
+target system. See the download pages for details.
Installation
------------
-wxWindows 2.0 needs to be compiled before you can test out
+wxWidgets 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:
docs/msw
docs/gtk
docs/motif
+ docs/mac
+ docs/x11
+ docs/mgl
+ docs/os2
-License information
+Licence information
-------------------
For licensing information, please see the files:
docs/gpl.txt
docs/lgpl.txt
+Although this may seem complex, it is there to allow authors of
+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 compiled with --enable-odbc (Unix only), wxWidgets library will
+contain iODBC library which is covered by LGPL.
+
+If you use TIFF image handler, please see src/tiff/COPYRIGHT
+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 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.
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+See docs/html/index.htm for an HTML index of the major documents.
+
+See docs/changes.txt for a summary of changes to wxWidgets 2.
+
+See docs/tech for an archive of technical notes.
+
+The wxWidgets bug database can be browsed at:
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863
+
+The Windows help files are located in docs/winhelp.
+The PDF help files are located in docs/pdf.
+
+Further information
+-------------------
+
+The wxWidgets Web site is located at:
+
+ http://www.wxwidgets.org
+
+The main wxWidgets ftp site is at:
+
+ ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub
+
+A wxWidgets CD-ROM with the latest distribution plus an HTML
+front-end and hundreds of MB of compilers, utilities and other
+material may be ordered from the CD-ROM page: see the wxWidgets
+web site.
+
+Have fun!
+
+The wxWidgets Team, May 2004