\section{What is wxWindows?}
wxWindows is a C++ framework providing GUI (Graphical User
-Interface) and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2.0 currently
-supports MS Windows (16-bit, Windows 95 and Windows NT), Unix with GTK+, and Unix with Motif.
-A Mac port is in an advanced state, an OS/2 port and a port to the MGL graphics library
-have been started.
+Interface) and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2 currently
+supports MS Windows (16-bit, Windows 95 and Windows NT), Unix with GTK+, Unix with Motif,
+and Mac. An OS/2 port is in progress.
wxWindows was originally developed at the Artificial Intelligence
-Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use.
-wxWindows has been released into the public domain in the hope
-that others will also find it useful. Version 2.0 is written and
-maintained by Julian Smart, Robert Roebling, Vadim Zeitlin and others.
+Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use,
+and was first made publicly available in 1993.
+Version 2 is a vastly improved version written and maintained by
+Julian Smart, Robert Roebling, Vadim Zeitlin and many others.
This manual discusses wxWindows in the context of multi-platform
development.\helpignore{For more detail on the wxWindows version 2.0 API
emerged. However, none has the range of features, flexibility, documentation and the
well-established development team that wxWindows has.
-As public domain software and a project open to everyone, wxWindows has
+As open source software, wxWindows has
benefited from comments, ideas, bug fixes, enhancements and the sheer
-enthusiasm of users, especially via the Internet. This gives wxWindows a
+enthusiasm of users. This gives wxWindows a
certain advantage over its commercial competitors (and over free libraries
without an independent development team), plus a robustness against
the transience of one individual or company. This openness and
thousands of lines of application code may depend upon the longevity of
the underlying class library.
-Version 2.0 goes much further than previous versions in terms of generality and features,
+Version 2 goes much further than previous versions in terms of generality and features,
allowing applications to be produced
that are often indistinguishable from those produced using single-platform
-toolkits such as Motif and MFC.
+toolkits such as Motif, GTK+ and MFC.
The importance of using a platform-independent class library cannot be
overstated, since GUI application development is very time-consuming,
platform or audience. wxWindows helps to insulate the programmer from
these winds of change. Although wxWindows may not be suitable for
every application (such as an OLE-intensive program), it provides access to most of the functionality a
-GUI program normally requires, plus some extras such as network programming
-and PostScript output, and can of course be extended as needs dictate. As a bonus, it provides
-a cleaner programming interface than the native
+GUI program normally requires, plus many extras such as network programming,
+PostScript output, and HTML rendering; and it can of course be extended as needs dictate. As a bonus, it provides
+a far cleaner and easier programming interface than the native
APIs. Programmers may find it worthwhile to use wxWindows even if they
are developing on only one platform.
\item Low cost (free, in fact!)
\item You get the source.
\item Available on a variety of popular platforms.
-\item Works with almost all popular C++ compilers.
-\item Several example programs.
-\item Over 900 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
+\item Works with almost all popular C++ compilers and Python.
+\item Over 50 example programs.
+\item Over 1000 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
\item Includes Tex2RTF, to allow you to produce your own documentation
in Windows Help, HTML and Word RTF formats.
\item Simple-to-use, object-oriented API.
\item Flexible event system.
\item Graphics calls include lines, rounded rectangles, splines, polylines, etc.
-\item Constraint-based layout option.
+\item Constraint-based and sizer-based layouting.
\item Print/preview and document/view architectures.
\item Toolbar, notebook, tree control, advanced list control classes.
-\item PostScript generation under Unix, normal MS Windows printing on the
-PC.
+\item PostScript generation under Unix, normal MS Windows printing on the PC.
\item MDI (Multiple Document Interface) support.
\item Can be used to create DLLs under Windows, dynamic libraries on Unix.
\item Common dialogs for file browsing, printing, colour selection, etc.
\item Under MS Windows, support for creating metafiles and copying
them to the clipboard.
\item An API for invoking help from applications.
+\item Ready-to-use HTML window (supporting a subset of HTML).
\item Dialog Editor for building dialogs.
\item Network support via a family of socket and protocol classes.
+\item Support for platform independent image procesing.
+\item Built-in support for many file formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, XPM, PNM, PCX).
\end{itemize}
\section{Changes from version 1.xx}\label{versionchanges}
\item MDI classes brought out of wxFrame into separate classes, and made more flexible.
\end{itemize}
+
+\section{Changes from version 2.0}\label{versionchanges20}
+
+These are a few of the differences between versions 2.0 and 2.2.
+
+Removals:
+
+\begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
+\item GTK 1.0 no longer supported.
+\end{itemize}
+
+Additions and changes:
+
+\begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
+\item Corrected many classes to conform better to documented behaviour.
+\item Added handlers for more image formats (Now GIF, JPEG, PCX, BMP, XPM, PNG, PNM).
+\item Improved support for socket and network functions.
+\item Support for different national font encodings.
+\item Sizer based layout system.
+\item HTML widget and help system.
+\item Added some controls (e.g. wxSpinCtrl) and supplemented many.
+\item Many optical improvements to GTK port.
+\item Support for menu accelerators in GTK port.
+\item Enhanced and improved support for scrolling, including child windows.
+\item Complete rewrite of clipboard and drag'n'drop classes.
+\item Improved support for ODBC databases.
+\item Improved tab traversal in dialogs.
+\end{itemize}
+
+
\section{wxWindows requirements}\label{requirements}
To make use of wxWindows, you currently need one or both of the
\begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
\item Almost any C++ compiler, including GNU C++ (EGCS 1.1.1 or above).
-\item Almost any Unix workstation, and one of: GTK+ 1.0, GTK+ 1.2, Motif 1.2 or higher, Lesstif.
+\item Almost any Unix workstation, and one of: GTK+ 1.2, Motif 1.2 or higher, Lesstif.
\item At least 60 MB of disk space.
\end{enumerate}
\section{Availability and location of wxWindows}
-wxWindows is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
+\winhelponly{wxWindows is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
+from ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin and/or http://www.wxwindows.org.}
+\winhelpignore{wxWindows is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
from \urlref{ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin}{ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin}
-and/or \urlref{http://www.wxwindows.org}{http://www.wxwindows.org}
+and/or \urlref{http://www.wxwindows.org}{http://www.wxwindows.org}.}
You can also buy a CD-ROM using the form on the Web site, or by contacting:
Yiorgos Adamopoulos, Jamshid Afshar, Alejandro Aguilar-Sierra, AIAI, Patrick Albert, Karsten Ballueder, Michael Bedward, Kai Bendorf, Yura Bidus, Keith
Gary Boyce, Chris Breeze, Pete Britton, Ian Brown, C. Buckley, Dmitri Chubraev, Robin Corbet, Cecil Coupe, Andrew Davison, Neil Dudman, Robin
Dunn, Hermann Dunkel, Jos van Eijndhoven, Tom Felici, Thomas Fettig, Matthew Flatt, Pasquale Foggia, Josep Fortiana, Todd Fries, Dominic Gallagher,
-Wolfram Gloger, Norbert Grotz, Stefan Gunter, Bill Hale, Patrick Halke, Stefan Hammes, Guillaume Helle, Harco de Hilster, Cord Hockemeyer, Markus
+Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia, Wolfram Gloger, Norbert Grotz, Stefan Gunter, Bill Hale, Patrick Halke, Stefan Hammes, Guillaume Helle, Harco de Hilster, Cord Hockemeyer, Markus
Holzem, Olaf Klein, Leif Jensen, Bart Jourquin, Guilhem Lavaux, Jan Lessner, Nicholas Liebmann, Torsten Liermann, Per Lindqvist, Thomas Runge, Tatu
-M\"{a}nnist\"{o}, Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Hernan Otero, Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti,
+M\"{a}nnist\"{o}, Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Stefan Neis, Hernan Otero, Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti,
Garrett Potts, Marcel Rasche, Robert Roebling, Dino Scaringella, Jobst Schmalenbach, Arthur Seaton, Paul Shirley, Vaclav Slavik, Stein Somers, Petr Smilauer, Neil Smith,
-Kari Syst\"{a}, Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli, Vadim Zeitlin, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann.
+Kari Syst\"{a}, Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, David Webster, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli, Vadim Zeitlin, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann.
`Graphplace', the basis for the wxGraphLayout library, is copyright Dr. Jos
T.J. van Eijndhoven of Eindhoven University of Technology. The code has
\section{Libraries}
-Please the wxGTK or wxMotif documentation for use of the Unix version of wxWindows.
-Under Windows, use the library wx.lib for stand-alone Windows
-applications, or wxdll.lib for creating DLLs.
+The GTK and Motif ports of wxWindow can create either a static library or a shared
+library on most Unix or Unix-like systems. The static library is called libwx\_gtk.a
+and libwx\_motif.a whereas the name of the shared library is dependent on the
+system it is created on and the version you are using. The library name for the
+GTK version of wxWindows 2.2 on Linux and Solaris will be libwx\_gtk-2.2.so.0.0.0,
+on HP-UX, it will be libwx\_gtk-2.2.sl, on AIX just libwx\_gtk.a etc.
+
+Under Windows, use the library wx.lib (release) or wxd.lib (debug) for stand-alone Windows
+applications, or wxdll.lib (wxdlld.lib) for creating DLLs.
\section{Configuration}
Options are configurable in the file
-\rtfsp{\tt "wx/XXX/setup.h"} where XXX is the required platform (such as msw, motif, gtk, mac). Some settings are a matter
-of taste, some help with platform-specific problems, and
+\rtfsp{\tt "wx/XXX/setup.h"} where XXX is the required platform (such as msw, motif, gtk, mac). Some
+settings are a matter of taste, some help with platform-specific problems, and
others can be set to minimize the size of the library. Please see the setup.h file
and {\tt install.txt} files for details on configuration.
+Under Unix (GTK and Motif) the corresponding setup.h files are generated automatically
+when configuring the wxWindows using the "configure" script. When using the RPM packages
+for installing wxWindows on Linux, a correct setup.h is shipped in the package and
+this must not be changed.
+
\section{Makefiles}
At the moment there is no attempt to make Unix makefiles and
PC makefiles compatible, i.e. one makefile is required for
-each environment. wxGTK has its own configure system which can also
-be used with wxMotif, although wxMotif has a simple makefile system of its own.
-
-Sample makefiles for Unix (suffix .UNX), MS C++ (suffix .DOS and .NT), Borland
+each environment. The Unix ports use a sophisticated system based
+on the GNU autoconf tool and this system will create the
+makefiles as required on the respective platform. Although the
+makefiles are not identical in Windows, Mac and Unix, care has
+been taken to make them relatively similar so that moving from
+one platform to another will be painless.
+
+Sample makefiles for Unix (suffix .unx), MS C++ (suffix .DOS and .NT), Borland
C++ (.BCC and .B32) and Symantec C++ (.SC) are included for the library, demos
and utilities.
-The controlling makefile for wxWindows is in the platform-specific
-directory, such as {\tt src/msw} or {\tt src/motif}.
+The controlling makefile for wxWindows is in the MS-Windows
+directory {\tt src/msw} for the different Windows compiler and
+in the build directory when using the Unix ports. The build
+directory can be chosen by the user. It is the directory in
+which the "configure" script is run. This can be the normal
+base directory (by running {\tt ./configure} there) or any other
+directory (e.g. {\tt ../configure} after creating a build-directory
+in the directory level above the base directory).
Please see the platform-specific {\tt install.txt} file for further details.
projects / wxWidgets.git / blobdiff