wxWindows is a C++ framework providing GUI (Graphical User
Interface) and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2.0 currently
-supports subsets MS Windows (16-bit, Windows 95 and Windows NT) and GTK+, with Motif
-and Mac ports in an advanced state.
+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.
wxWindows was originally developed at the Artificial Intelligence
Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use.
wxWindows was developed to provide a cheap and flexible way to maximize
investment in GUI application development. While a number of commercial
-class libraries already exist for cross-platform development,
+class libraries already existed for cross-platform development,
none met all of the following criteria:
\begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
\item support for a wide range of compilers.
\end{enumerate}
+Since wxWindows 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 wxWindows has.
+
As public domain software and a project open to everyone, wxWindows has
benefited from comments, ideas, bug fixes, enhancements and the sheer
enthusiasm of users, especially via the Internet. This gives wxWindows a
-certain advantage over its commercial brothers, and a robustness against
+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.
-In writing wxWindows, completeness has sometimes been traded for
-portability and simplicity of programming. Version 2.0 goes much
-further than previous versions in terms of generality and features,
+Version 2.0 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 and MFC.
The importance of using a platform-independent class library cannot be
overstated, since GUI application development is very time-consuming,
Code can very quickly become obsolete if it addresses the wrong
platform or audience. wxWindows helps to insulate the programmer from
these winds of change. Although wxWindows may not be suitable for
-every application, it provides access to most of the functionality a
-GUI program normally requires, plus some extras such as form
-construction, interprocess communication and PostScript output, and
-can of course be extended as needs dictate. As a bonus, it provides
+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
APIs. Programmers may find it worthwhile to use wxWindows even if they
are developing on only one platform.
\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.
\item Several example programs.
-\item Over 700 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
+\item Over 900 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 Graphics calls include splines, polylines, rounded rectangles, etc.
+\item Flexible event system.
+\item Graphics calls include lines, rounded rectangles, splines, polylines, etc.
\item Constraint-based layout option.
\item Print/preview and document/view architectures.
-\item Status line facility, toolbar
-\item Encapsulated PostScript generation under Unix, normal MS Windows printing on the
+\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.
them to the clipboard.
\item An API for invoking help from applications.
\item Dialog Editor for building dialogs.
-\item Socket support.
+\item Network support via a family of socket and protocol classes.
\end{itemize}
\section{Changes from version 1.xx}\label{versionchanges}
temporarily with the window as an argument;
\item events from sliders and scrollbars can be handled more flexibly;
\item the handling of window close events has been changed in line with the new
-event system, but backward {\bf OnClose} compatibility has been retained;
+event system;
\item the concept of {\it validator} has been added to allow much easier coding of
the relationship between controls and application data;
\item the documentation has been revised, with more cross-referencing.
\begin{enumerate}\itemsep=0pt
\item A 486 or higher PC running MS Windows.
-\item One of Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 or higher, Borland C++, Gnu-Win32.
+\item A Windows compiler: most are supported, but please see {\tt install.txt} for
+details. Supported compilers include Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 or higher, Borland C++, Cygwin,
+Metrowerks CodeWarrior.
\item At least 60 MB of disk space.
\end{enumerate}
\begin{verbatim}
ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin
- http://wxwin.home.ml.org
+ http://www.wxwindows.org
\end{verbatim}
\section{Acknowledgments}
wxWindows does not use templates since it is a notoriously unportable feature.
+\subsection{RTTI}
+
+wxWindows does not use run-time type information since wxWindows provides
+its own run-time type information system, implemented using macros.
+
+\subsection{Type of NULL}
+
+Some compilers (e.g. the native IRIX cc) define NULL to be 0L so that
+no conversion to pointers is allowed. Because of that, all these
+occurences of NULL in the GTK port use an explicit conversion such
+as
+
+{\small
+\begin{verbatim}
+ wxWindow *my_window = (wxWindow*) NULL;
+\end{verbatim}
+}
+
+It is recommended to adhere to this in all code using wxWindows as
+this make the code (a bit) more portable.
+
\subsection{Precompiled headers}
Some compilers, such as Borland C++ and Microsoft C++, support
precompiled headers. This can save a great deal of compiling time. The
-recommended approach is to precompile {\tt ``wx.h''}, using this
+recommended approach is to precompile {\tt "wx.h"}, using this
precompiled header for compiling both wxWindows itself and any
wxWindows applications. For Windows compilers, two dummy source files
are provided (one for normal applications and one for creating DLLs)
is that to take advantage of the facility, you often need to include
more header files than would normally be the case. This means that
changing a header file will cause more recompilations (in the case of
-wxWindows, everything needs to be recompiled since everything includes
-{\tt ``wx.h''}!)
+wxWindows, everything needs to be recompiled since everything includes {\tt "wx.h"}!)
A related problem is that for compilers that don't have precompiled
headers, including a lot of header files slows down compilation
A number of `extras' are supplied with wxWindows, to complement
the GUI functionality in the main class library. These are found
below the utils directory and usually have their own source, library
-and documentation directories. For larger user-contributed packages,
-see the directory /pub/packages/wxwin/contrib.
+and documentation directories. For other user-contributed packages,
+see the directory ftp://www.remstar.com/pub/wxwin/contrib, which is
+more easily accessed via the Contributions page on the Web site.
\section{wxHelp}\label{wxhelp}
Don't use absolute panel item positioning if you can avoid it. Different GUIs have
very differently sized panel items. Consider using the constraint system, although this
-can be complex to program. If you needs are simple, the default relative positioning
-behaviour may be adequate (using default position values and wxPanel::NewLine).
+can be complex to program.
Alternatively, you could use alternative .wrc (wxWindows resource files) on different
platforms, with slightly different dimensions in each. Or space your panel items out
projects / wxWidgets.git / blobdiff