X-Git-Url: https://git.saurik.com/wxWidgets.git/blobdiff_plain/605d715ddd84ddc3e78423e3f3ae5c27c8ff4d43..bf7945cef10c0844a32e95695c544d829da9293a:/docs/latex/wx/body.tex diff --git a/docs/latex/wx/body.tex b/docs/latex/wx/body.tex index d7f0e29828..f78cce22ce 100644 --- a/docs/latex/wx/body.tex +++ b/docs/latex/wx/body.tex @@ -6,16 +6,15 @@ \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 @@ -44,9 +43,9 @@ Since wxWindows was started, several other free or almost-free GUI frameworks ha 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 @@ -54,10 +53,10 @@ 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. -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, @@ -66,9 +65,9 @@ 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 (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. @@ -80,14 +79,14 @@ here are some of the benefits: \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. @@ -97,10 +96,10 @@ in Windows Help, HTML and Word RTF formats. \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} @@ -124,7 +123,7 @@ Additions and changes: \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; @@ -191,7 +190,7 @@ Additions and changes: \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} @@ -222,9 +221,11 @@ Metrowerks CodeWarrior. \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: @@ -246,11 +247,11 @@ the project over the years. Apologies for any unintentional omissions from this Yiorgos Adamopoulos, Jamshid Afshar, Alejandro Aguilar-Sierra, AIAI, Patrick Albert, Karsten Ballueder, Michael Bedward, Kai Bendorf, Yura Bidus, Keith Gary Boyce, Chris Breeze, Pete Britton, Ian Brown, C. Buckley, Dmitri Chubraev, Robin Corbet, Cecil Coupe, Andrew Davison, Neil Dudman, Robin Dunn, Hermann Dunkel, Jos van Eijndhoven, Tom Felici, Thomas Fettig, Matthew Flatt, Pasquale Foggia, Josep Fortiana, Todd Fries, Dominic Gallagher, -Wolfram Gloger, Norbert Grotz, Stefan Gunter, Bill Hale, Patrick Halke, Stefan Hammes, Guillaume Helle, Harco de Hilster, Cord Hockemeyer, Markus +Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia, Wolfram Gloger, Norbert Grotz, Stefan Gunter, Bill Hale, Patrick Halke, Stefan Hammes, Guillaume Helle, Harco de Hilster, Cord Hockemeyer, Markus Holzem, Olaf Klein, Leif Jensen, Bart Jourquin, Guilhem Lavaux, Jan Lessner, Nicholas Liebmann, Torsten Liermann, Per Lindqvist, Thomas Runge, Tatu -M\"{a}nnist\"{o}, Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Hernan Otero, Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti, +M\"{a}nnist\"{o}, Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Stefan Neis, Hernan Otero, Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti, Garrett Potts, Marcel Rasche, Robert Roebling, Dino Scaringella, Jobst Schmalenbach, Arthur Seaton, Paul Shirley, Vaclav Slavik, Stein Somers, Petr Smilauer, Neil Smith, -Kari Syst\"{a}, Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli, Vadim Zeitlin, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann. +Kari Syst\"{a}, Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, David Webster, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli, Vadim Zeitlin, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann. `Graphplace', the basis for the wxGraphLayout library, is copyright Dr. Jos T.J. van Eijndhoven of Eindhoven University of Technology. The code has @@ -326,8 +327,8 @@ system it is created on and the version you are using. The library name for the 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} @@ -448,7 +449,7 @@ fine on some platforms, and then fail under Windows. \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 @@ -491,7 +492,7 @@ its own run-time type information system, implemented using macros. 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 @@ -526,7 +527,7 @@ X and Windows parts of the library) conditional 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} @@ -576,7 +577,7 @@ more easily accessed via the Contributions page on the Web site. 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 @@ -689,9 +690,9 @@ it can alert you to problems later on. \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). @@ -720,7 +721,7 @@ kinds of bitmap depending on platform (see the section on resource files). \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 @@ -747,8 +748,8 @@ deallocation, this can still give totally spurious results! \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. @@ -777,13 +778,13 @@ See the \helpref{debugging overview}{debuggingoverview} for further information. \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.