+
+
+
+|
+
+wxWindows 2 FAQ: General
+
+ |
+
+
+
+
+
+See also top-level FAQ page.
+
+List of questions in this category
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+Although GUI applications are mostly built programmatically, there is a dialog editor to help
+build attractive dialogs and panels. Robert Roebling's wxDesigner
+makes light work of resizable, portable dialogs.
+
+You don't have to use C++ to use wxWindows: there is a Python interface for wxWindows 2,
+and also a Perl interface.
+
+
+
Can I use wxWindows 2 for both proprietary (commercial) projects, and GPL'ed projects?
+
+Yes. Please see the licence for details, but basically
+you can distribute proprietary binaries without distributing any source code, and neither will wxWindows
+conflict with GPL code you may be using or developing with it.
+
+The conditions for using wxWindows 2 are the same whether you are a personal, academic
+or commercial developer.
+
+
+
Is there support?
+
+No official support, but the mailing list is very helpful and some people say that
+wxWindows support is better than for much commercial software. The developers are
+keen to fix bugs as soon as possible, though obviously there are no guarantees.
+
+
+
+
+Many organisations - commercial, government, and academic - across the
+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.
+
+See Users for a list of some users and their applications, and
+also Feedback for comments.
+
+
+
+
+- Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME.
+
- Linux and other Unix platforms with GTK+.
+
- Unix with Motif or the free Motif clone Lesstif.
+
- Mac OS.
+
- Embedded platforms are being investigated. See the wxUniversal project.
+
- An OS/2 port is in progress, and you can also compile wxWindows for GTK+ or Motif
+on OS/2.
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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:
+
+
+#ifdef new
+#undef new
+#endif
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+These are the possibilities so far:
+
+
+- The richedit sample has a text editor that does markup.
+
- See www.scintilla.org for
+a very nice syntax-highlighting editor widget. Robin Dunn is writing a wxWindows wrapper
+for this widget.
+
- 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.
+
- 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).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+We are using the CVS 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.
+
+To build source from CVS, see the file BuildCVS.txt in the top-level wxWindows distribution
+directory.
+
+
+
+By ftp, and via the wxWindows CD-ROM.
+
+If you are feeling adventurous, you may also check out the sources directly
+from the cvs
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+Other possibilities include: DCOM/CORBA compatibility; a wxWindows book;
+wxWorkshop, an IDE;
+other platforms, especially embedded systems; other interface abilities such as speech output.
+
+We will investigate the possibility of compiler or operating system vendors bundling wxWindows with
+their product.
+
+The high-level goal of wxWindows is to be thought of as the number one C++ framework,
+for virtually any platform. Move over, MFC!
+
+
+
+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.
+
+You may find more about wxUniversal here.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+Please check out the Community pages,
+in particular the suggested projects, and
+mail Julian Smart or the developers' mailing list with your own suggestions.
+
+
+
+
+
+