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wxWindows 2 FAQ: General
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See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
<hr>
+<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#whatis">What is wxWindows?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#users">Who uses wxWindows?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWindows 2?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#specific">How does wxWindows 2 support platform-specific features?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#stl">Does wxWindows use STL? or the standard string class?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWindows 2?</a></ li>
+<li><a href="#dev">How is wxWindows 2 being developed?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#distrib">How is wxWindows 2 distributed?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#future">What are the plans for the future?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#jave">What about Java?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#help">How can I help the project?</a></li>
+</ul>
+<hr>
<H3><a name="whatis">What is wxWindows?</a></H3>
wxWindows is a class library that allows you to compile graphical C++ programs on a range of
different platforms. wxWindows defines a common API across platforms, but uses the native graphical user interface (GUI) on each platform,
-so your program will take on the native
'look and feel' that users are familiar with.<P>
+so your program will take on the native
'look and feel' that users are familiar with.<P>
Although GUI applications are mostly built programmatically, there is a dialog editor to help
-build attractive dialogs and panels.<P>
+build attractive dialogs and panels. Robert Roebling's <a href="http://www.roebling.com">wxDesigner</a>
+makes light work of resizable, portable dialogs.<P>
-You don't have to use C++ to use wxWindows: wxWindows 1 has been interfaced to several interpreted languages,
-such as CLIPS, Python, Scheme, XLisp and Perl, and there is a Python interface for wxWindows 2.
+You don't have to use C++ to use wxWindows: there is a <a href="http://wxpython.org">Python interface</a> for wxWindows 2,
+and also a <a href="http://wxperl.sourceforge.net" target=_top>Perl interface</a>.
<P>
-<h3>Can I use wxWindows 2 for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL'ed projects?</h3>
+<h3>Can I use wxWindows 2 for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL'ed projects?</h3>
Yes. Please see the <a href="newlicen.htm">licence</a> for details, but basically
you can distribute proprietary binaries without distributing any source code, and neither will wxWindows
<H3><a name="users">Who uses wxWindows?</a></H3>
Many organisations - commercial, government, and academic - across the
-world. It's impossible to estimate the true number of users, since
+world. It's impossible to estimate the true number of users, since
wxWindows is obtained by many different means, and we cannot monitor
distribution. The mailing list contains around 300-400 entries which is
quite large for a list of this type.<P>
+See <a href="users.htm">Users</a> for a list of some users and their applications, and
+also <A href="feedback.htm">Feedback</a> for comments.<P>
+
+<H3><a name="platforms">What platforms are supported by wxWindows 2?</a></H3>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME.
+<li>Linux and other Unix platforms with GTK+.
+<li>Unix with Motif or the free Motif clone Lesstif.
+<li>Mac OS.
+<li>Embedded platforms are being investigated. See the <a href="wxuniv.htm">wxUniversal</a> project.
+<li>An OS/2 port is in progress, and you can also compile wxWindows for GTK+ or Motif
+on OS/2.
+</ul>
+<P>
+
+<H3><a name="specific">How does wxWindows 2 support platform-specific
+features?</a></H3>
+
+This is a hotly-debated topic amongst the developers. My own philosophy
+is to make wxWindows as platform-independent as possible, but allow in a
+few classes (functions, window styles) that are platform-specific.
+For example, Windows metafiles and Windows 95 taskbar icons have
+their own classes on Windows, but nowhere else. Because these classes
+are provided and are wxWindows-compatible, it doesn't take much
+coding effort for an application programmer to add support for
+some functionality that the user on a particular platform might otherwise
+miss. Also, some classes that started off as platform-specific, such
+as the MDI classes, have been emulated on other platforms. I can imagine
+that even wxTaskBarIcon may be implemented for Unix desktops one day.
+<P>
+
+In other words, wxWindows is not a 'lowest common denominator' approach,
+but it will still be possible to write portable programs using the
+core API. Forbidding some platform-specific classes would be a stupid
+approach that would alienate many potential users, and encourage
+the perception that toolkits such as wxWindows are not up to the demands
+of today's sophisticated applications.<P>
+
+Currently resources such as bitmaps and icons are handled in a platform-specific
+way, but it is hoped to reduce this dependence in due course.<P>
+
+Another reason why wxWindows 2 is not a 'lowest common denominator' toolkit is that
+some functionality missing on some platform has been provided using generic,
+platform-independent code, such as the wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl classes.<P>
+
+<H3><a name="stl">Does wxWindows use STL? or the standard string class?</a></H3>
+
+No. This is a much-discussed topic that has (many times) ended with the conclusion that it is in
+wxWindows' best interests to avoid use of templates. Not all compilers can handle
+templates adequately so it would dramatically reduce the number of compilers
+and platforms that could be supported. It would also be undersirable to make
+wxWindows dependent on another large library that may have to be downloaded and installed.
+In addition, use of templates can lead to executable bloat, which is something
+wxWindows 2 is strenously trying to avoid.<P>
+
+The standard C++ string class is not used, again because it is not available to all compilers,
+and it is not necessarily a very efficient implementation. Also, we retain more flexibility
+by being able to modify our own string class. Some compatibility with the string class
+has been built into wxString.<P>
+
+There is nothing to stop an application using templates or the string class for its own
+purposes. With wxWindows debugging options on, you may find you get errors when including
+STL headers. You can work around it either by switching off memory checking,
+or by adding this to a header before you include any STL files:<P>
+
+<PRE>
+#ifdef new
+#undef new
+#endif
+</PRE>
+
+<P>
+
+
+<H3><a name="richedit">Is there a rich edit/markup widget for wxWindows 2?</a></H3>
+
+These are the possibilities so far:<P>
+
+<ul>
+<li>The richedit sample has a text editor that does markup.
+<li>See <a href="http://www.scintilla.org" target=_top>www.scintilla.org</a> for
+a very nice syntax-highlighting editor widget. Robin Dunn is writing a wxWindows wrapper
+for this widget.
+<li>If you only need to display marked-up information, rather than edit it,
+then wxHTML will suit your needs. wxHTML is built into wxWindows - please see the reference
+manual for details, and samples/html.
+<li>There are rich edit widgets in both WIN32 and GTK+, but there is currently
+no wxWindows wrapper for these (but text attribute functions are being added in the wxWindows 2.3.x series).
+</ul>
+
+<P>
+
+<H3><a name="dev">How is wxWindows 2 being developed?</a></H3>
+
+We are using the <a href="cvs.htm">CVS</a> system to develop and maintain wxWindows. This allows
+us to make alterations and upload them instantly to the SourceForge server, from
+which others can update their source.<P>
+
+To build source from CVS, see the file BuildCVS.txt in the top-level wxWindows distribution
+directory.<P>
+
+<H3><a name="distrib">How is wxWindows 2 distributed?</a></H3>
+
+By ftp, and via the <a href="cdrom2.htm">wxWindows CD-ROM</a>.
+<P>
+If you are feeling adventurous, you may also check out the sources directly
+from the <a href="cvs.htm">cvs</a>
+<p>
+
+<H3><a name="future">What are the plans for the future?</a></H3>
+
+Currently we're working too hard on getting wxWindows 2 finished (are GUI toolkits ever
+finished?) to think very far ahead. However, we know we want to make wxWindows as robust
+and well-publicised as possible. We also want to aim for better platform-independence of
+resources such as icons and bitmaps, standardising on the PNG for all platforms.<P>
+
+Other possibilities include: DCOM/CORBA compatibility; a wxWindows book;
+<a href="http://wxworkshop.sourceforge.net/">wxWorkshop</a>, an IDE;
+other platforms, especially embedded systems; other interface abilities such as speech output.<P>
+
+We will investigate the possibility of compiler or operating system vendors bundling wxWindows with
+their product.<P>
+
+The high-level goal of wxWindows is to be thought of as the number one C++ framework,
+for virtually any platform. Move over, MFC!<P>
+
+<H3><a name="univ">What is wxUniversal?</a></H3>
+
+wxUniversal is a new port of wxWindows being currently actively developed. The
+main difference is that wxUniversal implements all controls (or widgets) in
+wxWindows itself thus allowing to have much more flexibility (i.e. support for
+themes even under MS Windows!). It also means that it is now much easier to
+port wxWindows to a new platform as only the low-level classes must be ported
+which make for a small part of the library.
+<p>
+You may find more about wxUniversal <a href=wxuniv.htm>here</a>.
+
+<H3><a name="jave">What about Java?</a></H3>
+
+The Java honeymoon period is over :-) and people are realising that it cannot
+meet all their cross-platform development needs. We don't anticipate a major threat
+from Java, and the level of interest in wxWindows is as high as ever.<P>
+
+<H3><a name="help">How can I help the project?</a></H3>
+
+Please check out the <a href="http://www.wxwindows.org/develop2.htm">Community</a> pages,
+in particular the <a href="projects.htm">suggested projects</a>, and
+mail <a href="mailto:julian.smart@btopenworld.com">Julian Smart</a> or the developers' mailing list with your own suggestions.<P>
+
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