\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 You get the source.
\item Available on a variety of popular platforms.
\item Works with almost all popular C++ compilers and Python.
-\item Over 40 example programs.
-\item Over 900 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
+\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 and sizer-based layouting.
+\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 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 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 Support for platform independent image processing.
\item Built-in support for many file formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, XPM, PNM, PCX).
\end{itemize}
\begin{itemize}\itemsep=0pt
\item class hierarchy changed, and restrictions about subwindow nesting lifted;
-\item header files reorganised to conform to normal C++ standards;
+\item header files reorganized to conform to normal C++ standards;
\item classes less dependent on each another, to reduce executable size;
\item wxString used instead of char* wherever possible;
\item the number of separate but mandatory utilities reduced;
\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 Complete rewrite of clipboard and drag and drop classes.
\item Improved support for ODBC databases.
\item Improved tab traversal in dialogs.
\end{itemize}
\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:
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 for stand-alone Windows
-applications, or wxdll.lib for creating DLLs.
+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}
\section{Architecture dependency}
A problem which sometimes arises from writing multi-platform programs is that
-the basic C types are not defiend the same on all platforms. This holds true
+the basic C types are not defined the same on all platforms. This holds true
for both the length in bits of the standard types (such as int and long) as
well as their byte order, which might be little endian (typically
on Intel computers) or big endian (typically on some Unix workstations). wxWindows
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
+occurrences of NULL in the GTK port use an explicit conversion such
as
{\small
compilation that under Unix, includes a minimal set of headers;
and when using Visual C++, includes {\tt wx.h}. This should help provide
the optimal compilation for each compiler, although it is
-biassed towards the precompiled headers facility available
+biased towards the precompiled headers facility available
in Microsoft C++.
\section{File handling}
wxHelp is a stand-alone program, written using wxWindows,
for displaying hypertext help. It is necessary since not all target
systems (notably X) supply an adequate
-standard for on-line help. wxHelp is modelled on the MS Windows help
+standard for on-line help. wxHelp is modeled on the MS Windows help
system, with contents, search and browse buttons, but does not reformat
text to suit the size of window, as WinHelp does, and its input files
are uncompressed ASCII with some embedded font commands and an .xlp
\subsection{Use wxString in preference to character arrays}
Using wxString can be much safer and more convenient than using char *.
-Again, I haven't practised what I'm preaching, but I'm now trying to use
+Again, I haven't practiced what I'm preaching, but I'm now trying to use
wxString wherever possible. You can reduce the possibility of memory
-leaks substantially, and it's much more convenient to use the overloaded
+leaks substantially, and it is much more convenient to use the overloaded
operators than functions such as strcmp. wxString won't add a significant
overhead to your program; the overhead is compensated for by easier
manipulation (which means less code).
\subsection{Positive thinking}
-It's common to blow up the problem in one's imagination, so that it seems to threaten
+It is common to blow up the problem in one's imagination, so that it seems to threaten
weeks, months or even years of work. The problem you face may seem insurmountable:
but almost never is. Once you have been programming for some time, you will be able
to remember similar incidents that threw you into the depths of despair. But
\subsection{Use a debugger}
-This sounds like facetious advice, but it's surprising how often people
-don't use a debugger. Often it's an overhead to install or learn how to
+This sounds like facetious advice, but it is surprising how often people
+don't use a debugger. Often it is an overhead to install or learn how to
use a debugger, but it really is essential for anything but the most
trivial programs.
\subsection{Check Windows debug messages}
-Under Windows, it's worth running your program with
+Under Windows, it is worth running your program with
\urlref{DbgView}{http://www.sysinternals.com} running or
-some other program that shows Windows-generated debug messages. It's
-possible it'll show invalid handles being used. You may have fun seeing
+some other program that shows Windows-generated debug messages. It is
+possible it will show invalid handles being used. You may have fun seeing
what commercial programs cause these normally hidden errors! Microsoft
recommend using the debugging version of Windows, which shows up even
-more problems. However, I doubt it's worth the hassle for most
+more problems. However, I doubt it is worth the hassle for most
applications. wxWindows is designed to minimize the possibility of such
errors, but they can still happen occasionally, slipping through unnoticed
because they are not severe enough to cause a crash.
projects / wxWidgets.git / blobdiff