--- /dev/null
+/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+// Name: introduction.h
+// Purpose: Introduction page of the Doxygen manual
+// Author: wxWidgets team
+// RCS-ID: $Id$
+// Licence: wxWindows license
+/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+
+/*!
+
+ @page introduction_page Introduction
+
+ @li @ref whatis
+ @li @ref why
+ @li @ref requirements
+ @li @ref where
+ @li @ref acknowledgements
+
+
+ <hr>
+
+
+ @section whatis What is wxWidgets?
+
+ wxWidgets is a C++ framework providing GUI (Graphical User
+ Interface) and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2 and higher
+ currently support all desktop versions of MS Windows, Unix with GTK+ 1.x or 2.x,
+ Unix with Motif, Unix with just X11, Unix with DirectFB, Mac OS X, OS/2.
+
+ wxWidgets was originally developed at the Artificial Intelligence
+ Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use,
+ and was first made publicly available in 1992.
+ Version 2 is a vastly improved version written and maintained by
+ Julian Smart, Robert Roebling, Vadim Zeitlin, Vaclav Slavik and many others.
+
+ This manual contains a class reference and topic overviews.
+ For a selection of wxWidgets tutorials, please see the documentation page on the \urlref{wxWidgets web site}{http://www.wxwidgets.org}.
+
+ Please note that in the following, ``MS Windows" often refers to all
+ platforms related to Microsoft Windows, including 32-bit and 64-bit
+ variants, unless otherwise stated. All trademarks are acknowledged.
+
+ @section why Why another cross-platform development tool?
+
+ wxWidgets was developed to provide a cheap and flexible way to maximize
+ investment in GUI application development. While a number of commercial
+ class libraries already existed for cross-platform development,
+ none met all of the following criteria:
+
+ \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
+ \item low price;
+ \item source availability;
+ \item simplicity of programming;
+ \item support for a wide range of compilers.
+ \end{enumerate}
+
+ Since wxWidgets was started, several other free or almost-free
+ GUI frameworks have emerged. However, none has the range of
+ features, flexibility, documentation and the well-established
+ development team that wxWidgets has.
+
+ As open source software, wxWidgets has benefited from comments,
+ ideas, bug fixes, enhancements and the sheer enthusiasm of
+ users. This gives wxWidgets 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
+ availability of source code is especially important when the
+ future of thousands of lines of application code may depend upon
+ the longevity of the underlying class library.
+
+ 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, GTK+ and MFC.
+
+ The importance of using a platform-independent class library
+ cannot be overstated, since GUI application development is very
+ time-consuming, and sustained popularity of particular GUIs
+ cannot be guaranteed. Code can very quickly become obsolete if
+ it addresses the wrong platform or audience. wxWidgets helps to
+ insulate the programmer from these winds of change. Although
+ wxWidgets 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 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 wxWidgets even if they are developing on only
+ one platform.
+
+ It is impossible to sum up the functionality of wxWidgets in a few paragraphs, but
+ here are some of the benefits:
+
+ \begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
+ \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 and Python.
+ \item Over 70 example programs.
+ \item Over 1000 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
+ \item Simple-to-use, object-oriented API.
+ \item Flexible event system.
+ \item Graphics calls include lines, rounded rectangles, splines, polylines, etc.
+ \item Constraint-based and sizer-based layouts.
+ \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 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 Network support via a family of socket and protocol classes.
+ \item Support for platform independent image processing.
+ \item Built-in support for many file formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, XPM, PNM, PCX).
+ \item Includes Tex2RTF, to allow you to produce your own documentation
+ in Windows Help, HTML and Word RTF formats.
+ \end{itemize}
+
+ @section requirements wxWidgets requirements
+
+ To make use of wxWidgets, you currently need one of the following setups.
+
+ (a) MS-Windows:
+
+ \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
+ \item A 32-bit or 64-bit PC running MS Windows.
+ \item A Windows compiler: MS Visual C++ (embedded Visual C++ for wxWinCE
+ port), Borland C++, Watcom C++, Cygwin, MinGW, Metrowerks CodeWarrior,
+ Digital Mars C++. See {\tt install.txt} for details about compiler
+ version supported.
+ \end{enumerate}
+
+ (b) Unix:
+
+ \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
+ \item Almost any C++ compiler, including GNU C++ and many Unix vendors
+ compilers such as Sun CC, HP-UX aCC or SGI mipsPro.
+ \item Almost any Unix workstation, and one of: GTK+ 2.4 or higher (GTK+ 1.2.10
+ may still be supported but wxGTK1 port is not maintained any longer and lacks
+ many features of wxGTK2), Motif 1.2 or higher or Lesstif. If using the wxX11
+ port, no such widget set is required.
+ \end{enumerate}
+
+ (c) Mac OS/Mac OS X:
+
+ \begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
+ \item A PowerPC or Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
+ \item The Apple Developer Tools (eg. GNU C++) or MetroWerks CodeWarrior (not
+ actively supported)
+ \end{enumerate}
+
+ Under all platforms it's recommended to have large amounts of free hard disk
+ space. The exact amount needed depends on the port, compiler and build
+ configurations but to give an example, a debug build of the library may take up
+ to 500MB.
+
+ @section where Availability and location of wxWidgets
+
+ \winhelponly{wxWidgets is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
+ from ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub and/or http://www.wxwidgets.org.}
+ \winhelpignore{wxWidgets is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
+ from \urlref{ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub}{ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub}
+ and/or \urlref{http://www.wxwidgets.org}{http://www.wxwidgets.org}.}
+
+ You can also buy a CD-ROM using the form on the Web site.
+
+ @section acknowledgements Acknowledgements
+
+ The following is the list of the core, active developers of wxWidgets which keep
+ it running and have provided an invaluable, extensive and high-quality amount of
+ changes over the many of years of wxWidgets' life:
+
+ \begin{description}\itemsep=0pt
+ \item Julian Smart
+ \item Vadim Zeitlin
+ \item Robert Roebling
+ \item Robin Dunn
+ \item Stefan Csomor
+ \item Vaclav Slavik
+ \item Paul Cornett
+ \item Wlodzimierz `ABX' Skiba
+ \item Chris Elliott
+ \item David Elliott
+ \item Kevin Hock
+ \item Stefan Neis
+ \item Michael Wetherell
+ \end{description}
+
+ We would particularly like to thank the following peoples for their contributions
+ to wxWidgets, and the many others who have been involved in the project over the years.
+ Apologies for any unintentional omissions from this alphabetic list:
+
+ Yiorgos Adamopoulos, Jamshid Afshar, Alejandro Aguilar-Sierra, AIAI,
+ Patrick Albert, Karsten Ballueder, Mattia Barbon, Michael Bedward,
+ Kai Bendorf, Yura Bidus, Keith Gary Boyce, Chris Breeze, Pete Britton,
+ Ian Brown, C. Buckley, Marco Cavallini, Dmitri Chubraev, Robin Corbet, Cecil Coupe,
+ Andrew Davison, Gilles Depeyrot, Neil Dudman, Hermann Dunkel, Jos van Eijndhoven,
+ Tom Felici, Thomas Fettig, Matthew Flatt, Pasquale Foggia, Josep Fortiana, Todd Fries,
+ Dominic Gallagher, 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, Ron Lee, Jan Lessner, Nicholas Liebmann,
+ Torsten Liermann, Per Lindqvist, Francesco Montorsi, Thomas Runge, Tatu M\"{a}nnist\"{o},
+ Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Ryan Norton, Hernan Otero,
+ Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti,
+ Garrett Potts, Marcel Rasche, Dino Scaringella, Jobst Schmalenbach, Arthur Seaton,
+ Paul Shirley, Stein Somers, Petr Smilauer, Neil Smith, Kari Syst\"{a}, George Tasker,
+ Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli,
+ David Webster, Otto Wyss, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann.
+
+ Many thanks also to AIAI for being willing to release the original version of
+ wxWidgets into the public domain, and to our patient partners.
+
+ `Graphplace', the basis for the wxGraphLayout library, is copyright Dr. Jos
+ T.J. van Eijndhoven of Eindhoven University of Technology. The code has
+ been used in wxGraphLayout (not in wxWidgets anymore) with his permission.
+
+ We also acknowledge the author of XFIG, the excellent Unix drawing tool,
+ from the source of which we have borrowed some spline drawing code.
+ His copyright is included below.
+
+ {\it XFig2.1 is copyright (c) 1985 by Supoj Sutanthavibul. Permission to
+ use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
+ documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
+ that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
+ copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
+ documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used in advertising or
+ publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific,
+ written prior permission. M.I.T. makes no representations about the
+ suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided ``as is''
+ without express or implied warranty.}
+
+*/
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