+
<HTML>
<HEAD>
-<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
+<TITLE>wxWidgets for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 VLINK="#00376A" LINK="#00529C" ALINK="#313063">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#004080" align=left height=24 background="images/bluetitlegradient.gif">
<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
-<b>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</b>
+<b>wxWidgets for Windows FAQ</b>
</font>
</td>
</tr>
<li><a href="#wince">What about Windows CE?</a></li>
<li><a href="#winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></li>
<li><a href="#compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#doublebyte">Does wxWidgets support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#dll">Can you compile wxWidgets as a DLL?</a></li>
<li><a href="#exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#mfc">Is wxWidgets compatible with MFC?</a></li>
<li><a href="#setuph">Why do I get errors about setup.h not being found?</a></li>
<li><a href="#asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</a></li>
<li><a href="#newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#makefiles">How are the wxWidgets makefiles edited under Windows?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWidgets?</a></li>
<li><a href="#shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></li>
<li><a href="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></li>
<li><a href="#access">Is MS Active Accessibility supported?</a></li>
-<li><a href="#dspfmt">Why does Visual C++ complain about corrupted project files??</a></li>
+<li><a href="#dspfmt">Why does Visual C++ complain about corrupted project files?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#crtmismatch">Visual C++ gives errors about multiply defined symbols, what can I do?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#directx">Why do I get compilation errors when using wxWidgets with DirectShow?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#handlewm">How do I handle Windows messages in my wxWidgets program?</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name="platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></h3>
-wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
-Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. A Windows CE
-
version is being looked into (see below).<P>
+wxWidgets can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT,
+Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. A Windows CE
+
port is also available (see below).<P>
-wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
-we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
-work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
-However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
-class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
-makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
-<P>
-16-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
+16-bit compilation is only supported for wxWidgets 2.4 and previous versions,
+using Visual C++ 1.5 and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
<P>
-wxWi
ndows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using Wine from <a href="http://www.winehq.org" target=_top>WineHQ</a>.
+wxWi
dgets for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using Wine from <a href="http://www.winehq.org" target=_top>WineHQ</a>.
The resulting executables are Unix binaries that work with the Wine Windows API emulator.<P>
-You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
+You can also compile wxWidgets for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
-using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
+using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWidgets for Windows
programs with Wine, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
without ever needing a copy of Microsoft Windows. See the Technical Note on the Web site detailing cross-compilation.<P>
<h3><a name="wince">What about Windows CE?</a></h3>
-This port is largely complete. For further information, see the <a href="http://www.wxwindows.org/embedded.htm#wxwince">wxEmbedded</a> page.<P>
+This port supports Pocket PC 2002/2003 and MS Smartphone 2002/2003, using
+Embedded Visual C++ 3 or 4. For further information, see the wxMSW section in
+the wxWidgets Reference Manual, and also the <a href="http://www.wxwidgets.org/embedded.htm#wxwince">wxEmbedded</a> page.<P>
<h3><a name="winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></h3>
+From wxWidgets 2.5, the XP manifest is included in wx/msw/wx.rc and
+so your application will be themed automatically so long as you include wx.rc
+in your own .rc file.<P>
+
+For versions of wxWidgets below 2.5, you need to provide the manifest
+explicitly, as follows.<p>
+
In the same directory as you have your executable (e.g. foo.exe) you
put a file called foo.exe.manifest in which you have something like
the following:
1 24 "winxp.manifest"
</PRE>
-In wxWindows 2.5, this will be in the wx/msw/wx.rc and
-so will happen automatically so long as you include wx.rc
-in your own .rc file.<P>
-
For an explanation of this syntax, please see
<a href="http://delphi.about.com/library/bluc/text/uc111601a.htm" target=_new>this
article</a>.
<h3><a name="compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></h3>
-Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
+Please see the wxWidgets for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
currently the following are known to work:<P>
<ul>
<P>
-<h3><a name="bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></h3>
+<h3><a name="bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWidgets?</a></h3>
-It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
+It's partly a matter of taste, but some people prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
-for wxWi
ndows samples.<P>
+for wxWi
dgets samples.<P>
Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>
-C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
-own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
+C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWidgets since it needs integration with its
+own class library (VCL). For wxWidgets, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>
You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
Among the free compilers the best choice seem to be Borland C++ command line
tools and mingw32 (port of gcc to Win32). Both of them are supported by
-wxWindows.
+wxWidgets. However BC++ has trouble compiling large executables statically,
+so you need to dynamically link the wxWidgets libraries.<p>
<h3><a name="unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></h3>
href="http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/dev/mslu_announce.mspx">MSLU</a>.
<p>
-<h3><a name="doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></h3>
+<h3><a name="doublebyte">Does wxWidgets support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></h3>
-For Japanese under Win2000, it seems that wxWindows has no problems to work
+For Japanese under Win2000, it seems that wxWidgets has no problems working
with double byte char sets (meaning DBCS, not Unicode). First you have to
install Japanese support on your Win2K system and choose for ANSI translation
<tt>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage=932</tt>
(default is 1252 for Western). Then you can see all the Japanese letters in
-wxWindows applications.
+wxWidgets applications.
<p>
-<h3><a name="dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></h3>
+<h3><a name="dll">Can you compile wxWidgets as a DLL?</a></h3>
Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
-delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
+delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWidgets applications
and have limited hard disk space.<P>
-With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
+With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWidgets
needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
-wxWindows!
+wxWidgets!
<P>
<h3><a name="exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></h3>
-You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
+You can compile wxWidgets as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>
Please do not be surprised if MinGW produces a statically-linked minimal executable of 1 MB. Firstly, gcc
produces larger executables than some compilers. Secondly, this figure will
-include most of the overhead of wxWindows, so as your application becomes more
+include most of the overhead of wxWidgets, so as your application becomes more
complex, the overhead becomes proportionally less significant. And thirdly, trading executable compactness
-for the enormous increase in productivity you get with wxWi
ndows is almost always well worth it.<P>
+for the enormous increase in productivity you get with wxWi
dgets is almost always well worth it.<P>
If you have a really large executable compiled with MinGW (for example 20MB) then
-you need to configure wxWindows to compile without debugging information: see
+you need to configure wxWidgets to compile without debugging information: see
docs/msw/install.txt for details. You may find that using configure instead
of makefile.g95 is easier, particularly since you can maintain debug and
release versions of the library simultaneously, in different directories.
-Also, run 'strip' after linking to remove all traces of debug info.
+Also, run 'strip' after linking to remove all traces of debug info.
<P>
-<H3><a name="mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></H3>
+<H3><a name="mfc">Is wxWidgets compatible with MFC?</a></H3>
-There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
-application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
+There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWidgets code co-existing in the same
+application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWidgets windows with OLE-2
functionality using MFC.<P>
<H3><a name="setuph">Why do I get errors about setup.h not being found?</a></H3>
-When you build the wxWindows library, setup.h is copied
-from include/wx/msw/setup.h to e.g. lib/mswd/wx/setup.h (the path
+When you build the wxWidgets library, setup.h is copied
+from include/wx/msw/setup.h to e.g. lib/vc_msw/mswd/wx/setup.h (the path
depends on the configuration you're building). So you need to add
this include path if building using the static Debug library:<P>
-lib/mswd<P>
-or if building the static Release library, lib/msw.<P>
+or if building the static Release library, lib/
vc_lib/msw.<P>
-See also the <a href="http://wiki.wxwindows.org/wiki.pl?Table_Of_Contents">wxWiki Contents</a>
+See also the <a href="http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/wiki.pl?Table_Of_Contents">wxWiki Contents</a>
for more information.<P>
setting <tt>wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS</tt> and
<tt>wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS</tt> to 0 in this file
<li> Or leave them on but do <tt>#undef new</tt> after including any
- wxWindows headers, like this the memory debugging will be still on
- for wxWindows sources but off for your own code
+ wxWidgets headers, like this the memory debugging will be still on
+ for wxWidgets sources but off for your own code
</ul>
Notice that IMHO the first solution is preferable for VC++ users who can use
the <a href="#vcdebug">VC++ CRT memory debugging features</a> instead.
-<H3><a name="mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></H3>
+<H3><a name="mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWidgets?</a></H3>
-Set up your interface from scratch using wxWi
ndows (especially <a href="http://www.robeling.de" target=_top>wxDesigner</a>
+Set up your interface from scratch using wxWi
dgets (especially <a href="http://www.robeling.de" target=_top>wxDesigner</a>
or <a href="http://www.anthemion.co.uk/dialogblocks/" target=_new>DialogBlocks</a> --
it'll save you a <i>lot</i> of time) and when you have a shell prepared, you can start
'pouring in' code from the MFC app, with appropriate
it very satisfactory. A two-step process then - reproduce the bare
interface first, then wire it up afterwards. That way you deal
with each area of complexity separately. Don't try to think MFC
-and wxWindows simultaneously from the beginning - it is easier to
+and wxWidgets simultaneously from the beginning - it is easier to
reproduce the initial UI by looking at the behaviour of the MFC
app, not its code.
<H3><a name="crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></H3>
Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
-options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
+options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWidgets).
If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
-optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
+optimized. For example, in wxWidgets project, set to 'Minimum
Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>
-<H3><a name="makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></H3>
+<H3><a name="makefiles">How are the wxWidgets makefiles edited under Windows?</a></H3>
+
+wxWidgets 2.5.x and above uses Bakefile to generate makefiles, which
+is described in technical note 16 under docs/tech in your distribution.<p>
-As of wxWindows 2.1, there is a new system written by Vadim Zeitlin, that
+For 2.4.x, there is a system written by Vadim Zeitlin that
generates the makefiles from templates using tmake.<P>
-Here are Vadim's notes:<P>
+Here are Vadim's notes
on tmake:<P>
<blockquote>
To use these new makefiles, you don't need anything (but see below).
tmake can be found at
<a href="http://www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html" target=_new>www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html</a>.
-It's a Perl5 program and so it needs Perl (doh). There is a binary for
+It's a Perl5 program and so it needs Perl (doh). There is a binary for
Windows (available from the same page), but I haven't used it, so
I don't know if it works as flawlessly as "perl tmake" does (note
for people knowing Perl: don't try to run tmake with -w, it won't
<pre>tmake -t b32 wxwin.pro -o ../../src/msw/makefile.b32</pre><P>
-The makefiles are untested - I don't have any of Borland, Watcom or
+The makefiles are untested - I don't have any of Borland, Watcom or
Symantec and I don't have enough diskspace to recompile even with
VC6 using makefiles. The new makefiles are as close as possible to the
old ones, but not closer: in fact, there has been many strange things
Some other are only compiled with some compilers (others can't compile
them) - all this info is contained in this file.<P>
-So now adding a new file to wxWindows is as easy as modifying filelist.txt
+So now adding a new file to wxWidgets is as easy as modifying filelist.txt
(and Makefile.ams for Unix ports) and regenerating the makefiles - no
need to modify all files manually any more.<P>
one from vc6.t - probably the only things to change would be the
version number in the very beginning and the /Z option - VC5 doesn't
support edit-and=continue). This is not an officially supported way
-of building wxWindows (that is, nobody guarantees that it will work),
+of building wxWidgets (that is, nobody guarantees that it will work),
but it has been very useful to me and I hope it will be also for
-others. To generate wxWi
ndows.dsp run<P>
+others. To generate wxWi
dgets.dsp run<P>
-<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWi
ndows.dsp</pre><P>
+<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWi
dgets.dsp</pre><P>
Then just include this project in any workspace or open it from VC IDE
and it will create a new workspace for you.<P>
<P>
-<H3><a name="vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></H3>
+<H3><a name="vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWidgets?</a></H3>
Vadim Zeitlin:
<pre>
On the VC++ level, it's just the matter of calling _CrtSetDbgFlag() in the very
-beginning of the program. In wxWindows, this is done automatically when
+beginning of the program. In wxWidgets, this is done automatically when
compiling with VC++ in debug mode unless wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS or
__NO_VC_CRTDBG__ are defined - this check is done in wx/msw/msvcrt.h which
is included from app.cpp which then calls wxCrtSetDbgFlag() without any
supposed to deal with per-user application configuration data, and HKLM is
only supposed to be writeable by a user with Administrator privileges. In theory,
only installers should write to HKLM. This is still a point debated by the
-wxWindows developers. There are at least two ways to work around it if you really
+wxWidgets developers. There are at least two ways to work around it if you really
need to write to HKLM.<P>
First, you can use wxRegKey directly, for example:
regKey.SetName(idName);
{
- wxLogNull dummy;
+ wxLogNull dummy;
if (!regKey.Create())
{
idName = wxT("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\");
<H3><a name="#access">Is MS Active Accessibility supported?</a></H3>
-This is being worked on. Please see <a href="http://www.wxwindows.org/access.htm">this page</a>
+This is being worked on. Please see <a href="http://www.wxwidgets.org/access.htm">this page</a>
for the current status.
<P>
-<h3><a name="#dspfmt">Why does Visual C++ complain about corrupted project files??</a></h3>
+<h3><a name="#dspfmt">Why does Visual C++ complain about corrupted project files?</a></h3>
-If you have downloaded the wxWindows sources from the cvs using a Unix cvs
+If you have downloaded the wxWidgets sources from the cvs using a Unix cvs
client or downloaded a daily snapshot in <tt>.tar.gz</tt> format, it is likely
that the project files have Unix line endings (LF) instead of the DOS ones (CR
LF). However all versions of Visual C++ up to and including 7.1 can only open
and to avoid this problem completely.
<p>
+<h3><a name="#crtmismatch">Visual C++ gives errors about multiply defined symbols, what can I do?</a></h3>
+
+If you get errors like this
+
+<pre>
+MSVCRTD.lib(MSVCRTD.dll) : error LNK2005: _xxxxxx already defined in LIBCD.lib(yyyyy.obj)
+</pre>
+
+when linking your project, this means that you used different versions of CRT
+(C Run-Time) library for wxWindows (or possibly another library) and the main
+project. Visual C++ provides static or dynamic and multithread safe or not
+versions of CRT for each of debug and release builds, for a total of 8
+libraries. You can choose among them by going to the "Code generation"
+page/subitem of the "C++" tab/item in the project proprieties dialog in VC6/7.
+<p>
+To avoid problems, you <strong>must</strong> use the same one for all
+components of your project. wxWindows uses multithread safe DLL version of the
+CRT which is a good choice but may be problematic when distributing your
+applications if you don't include the CRT DLL in your installation -- in this
+case you may decide to switch to using a static CRT version. If you build with
+<tt>wxUSE_THREADS == 0</tt> you may also use the non MT-safe version as it is
+slightly smaller and faster.
+<p>
+But the most important thing is to use the <strong>same</strong> CRT setting for
+all components of your project.
+
+<h3><a name="#directx">Why do I get compilation errors when using wxWidgets with DirectShow?</a></h3>
+
+If you get errors when including Microsoft DirectShow or DirectDraw headers,
+the following message from Peter Whaite could help:
+<blockquote>
+> This causes compilation errors within DirectShow:
+>
+> wxutil.h(125) : error C2065: 'EXECUTE_ASSERT' : undeclared identifier
+> amfilter.h(1099) : error C2065: 'ASSERT' : undeclared identifier
+
+The reason for this is that __WXDEBUG__ is also used by the DXSDK (9.0
+in my case) to '#pragma once' the contents of
+DXSDK/Samples/C++/DirectShow/BaseClasses/wxdebug.h. So if __WXDEBUG__
+is defined, then wxdebug.h doesn't get included, and the assert macros
+don't get defined. You have to #undef __WXDEBUG__ before including the
+directshow baseclass's <streams.h>.
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<h3><a name="#handlewm">How do I handle Windows messages in my wxWidgets program?</a></h3>
+
+To handle a Windows message you need to override a virtual
+<tt>MSWWindowProc()</tt> method in a wxWindow-derived class. You should then
+test if <tt>nMsg</tt> parameter is the message you need to process and perform
+the necessary action if it is or call the base class method otherwise.
+
+
</font>
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