4f3b37fd0e
From Benjamin I. Williams git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@16537 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775
460 lines
20 KiB
HTML
460 lines
20 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
|
|
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
|
|
<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 VLINK="#00376A" LINK="#00529C" ALINK="#313063">
|
|
|
|
<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
|
|
|
|
<table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
|
|
<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>
|
|
</font>
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="#platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></li>
|
|
<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="#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="#exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="#mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</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="#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="#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>
|
|
</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>
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
|
|
although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
|
|
Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>
|
|
|
|
You can also compile wxWindows 2 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
|
|
programs with TWIN32, 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 is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
|
|
There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
|
|
as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
|
|
by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
|
|
and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
|
|
the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
|
|
storage should not be a problem.<P>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
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:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
|
|
<assembly
|
|
xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"
|
|
manifestVersion="1.0">
|
|
<assemblyIdentity
|
|
processorArchitecture="x86"
|
|
version="5.1.0.0"
|
|
type="win32"
|
|
name="foo.exe"/>
|
|
<description>Foo program</description>
|
|
<dependency>
|
|
<dependentAssembly>
|
|
<assemblyIdentity
|
|
type="win32"
|
|
name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
|
|
version="6.0.0.0"
|
|
publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
|
|
language="*"
|
|
processorArchitecture="x86"/>
|
|
</dependentAssembly>
|
|
</dependency>
|
|
</assembly>
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
<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
|
|
currently the following are known to work:<P>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Visual C++ 1.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
|
|
<li>Borland C++ 4.5, 5.0
|
|
<li>Borland C++Builder 1.0, 3.0
|
|
<li>Watcom C++ 10.6 (WIN32)
|
|
<li>Cygwin b20
|
|
<li>Mingw32
|
|
<li>MetroWerks CodeWarrior 4
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
There is a linking problem with Symantec C++ which I hope someone can help solve.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) 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 wxWindows 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
|
|
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
|
|
quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>
|
|
|
|
CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
|
|
the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>
|
|
|
|
Watcom C++ is a little slow and the debugger is not really up to today's standards.<P>
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
Yes, Unicode is fully supported under Windows NT/2000 (Windows 9x don't
|
|
have Unicode support anyhow).
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></h3>
|
|
|
|
An answer from <a href="mailto:goedde@logosoft.de">Klaus Goedde</a>:<p>
|
|
|
|
"For Japanese under Win2000, it seems that wxWindows has no problems to work with double byte char sets
|
|
(I mean DBCS, that's not Unicode). First you have to install Japanese support on your Win2K system
|
|
and choose for ANSI translation
|
|
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage=932 (default is 1252 for Western).
|
|
Then you can see all the funny Japanese letters under wxWindows too.<P>
|
|
|
|
In a wxTextCtrl control you have to set the window style "wxTE_RICH", otherwise this control shows the wrong
|
|
letters.
|
|
|
|
I don't now whether it works on non W2K systems, because I'm just starting using wxWindows."
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<h3><a name="dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 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
|
|
and have limited hard disk space.<P>
|
|
|
|
With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
|
|
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!
|
|
<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
|
|
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>
|
|
|
|
Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
|
|
wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
|
|
techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
|
|
indirectly) referenced
|
|
by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 300KB using VC++ 6.<P>
|
|
|
|
If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
|
|
use <a href="http://www.un4seen.com/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
|
|
by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
|
|
will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
|
|
use DLLs. Another good compression tool is <a href="http://upx.sourceforge.net/" target=_top>UPX</a>.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="mfc">Is wxWindows 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
|
|
functionality using MFC.<P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</H3>
|
|
|
|
If you get errors like
|
|
<p>
|
|
<center>
|
|
<tt>no matching function for call to 'wxDC::DrawTextA(const char[5], int,
|
|
int)'</tt>
|
|
</center>
|
|
<p>
|
|
or similar ones for the other functions, i.e. the compiler error messages
|
|
mention the function with the <tt>'A'</tt> suffix while you didn't
|
|
use it in your code, the explanation is that you had included
|
|
<tt><windows.h></tt> header which redefines many symbols to have such
|
|
suffix (or <tt>'W'</tt> in the Unicode builds).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The fix is to either not include <tt><windows.h></tt> at all or include
|
|
<tt>"wx/msw/winundef.h"</tt> immediately after it.
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></H3>
|
|
|
|
The most common cause of this problem is the memory debugging settings in
|
|
<tt>wx/msw/setup.h</tt>. You have several choices:
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li> Either disable overloading the global operator new completely by
|
|
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
|
|
</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>
|
|
|
|
Set up your interface from scratch using wxWindows (especially wxDesigner --
|
|
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
|
|
modifications. This is the approach I have used, and I found
|
|
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
|
|
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).
|
|
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
|
|
symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
|
|
the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>
|
|
|
|
VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
|
|
cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
|
|
Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
|
|
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
|
|
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>
|
|
|
|
As of wxWindows 2.1, there is a new system written by Vadim Zeitlin, that
|
|
generates the makefiles from templates using tmake.<P>
|
|
|
|
Here are Vadim's notes:<P>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
To use these new makefiles, you don't need anything (but see below).
|
|
However, you should NOT modify them because these files will be
|
|
rewritten when I regenerate them using tmake the next time. So, if
|
|
you find a problem with any of these makefiles (say, makefile.b32)
|
|
you'll need to modify the corresponding template (b32.t in this
|
|
example) and regenerate the makefile using tmake.<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
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
|
|
do you any good). Using it extremely simple: to regenerate makefile.b32
|
|
just go to distrib/msw/tmake and type<P>
|
|
|
|
<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
|
|
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
|
|
(should I say bugs?) in some of makefiles, some files were not compiled
|
|
without any reason etc. Please test them and notify me about any problems.
|
|
Better yet, modify the template files to generate the correct makefiles
|
|
and check them in.<P>
|
|
|
|
The templates are described in tmake ref manual (1-2 pages of text)
|
|
and are quite simple. They do contain some Perl code, but my Perl is
|
|
primitive (very C like) so it should be possible for anybody to make
|
|
trivial modifications to it (I hope that only trivial modifications
|
|
will be needed). I've tagged the ol makefiles as MAKEFILES_WITHOUT_TMAKE
|
|
in the cvs, so you can always retrieve them and compare the new ones,
|
|
this will make it easier to solve the problems you might have.<P>
|
|
|
|
Another important file is filelist.txt: it contains the list of all
|
|
files to be compiled. Some of them are only compiled in 16/32 bit mode.
|
|
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
|
|
(and Makefile.ams for Unix ports) and regenerating the makefiles - no
|
|
need to modify all files manually any more.<P>
|
|
|
|
Finally, there is also a file vc6.t which I use myself: this one
|
|
generates a project file for VC++ 6.0 (I didn't create vc5.t because
|
|
I don't need it and can't test it, but it should be trivial to create
|
|
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),
|
|
but it has been very useful to me and I hope it will be also for
|
|
others. To generate wxWindows.dsp run<P>
|
|
|
|
<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWindows.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>
|
|
|
|
If all goes well, I'm planning to create a template file for Makefile.ams
|
|
under src/gtk and src/motif and also replace all makefiles in the samples
|
|
subdirectories with the project files from which all the others will be
|
|
generated. At least it will divide the number of files in samples
|
|
directory by 10 (and the number of files to be maintained too).
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</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
|
|
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
|
|
ifdefs.
|
|
|
|
This works quite well: at the end of the program, all leaked blocks with their
|
|
malloc count are shown. This number (malloc count) can be used to determine
|
|
where exactly the object was allocated: for this it's enough to set the variable
|
|
_crtBreakAlloc (look in VC98\crt\srs\dbgheap.c line 326) to this number and
|
|
a breakpoint will be triggered when the block with this number is allocated.
|
|
|
|
For simple situations it works like a charm. For something more complicated
|
|
like reading uninitialized memory a specialized tool is probably better...
|
|
|
|
Regards,
|
|
VZ
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></H3>
|
|
|
|
This can happen if you have a child window intercepting EVT_CHAR events and swallowing
|
|
all keyboard input. You should ensure that event.Skip() is called for all input that
|
|
isn'used by the event handler.
|
|
|
|
<H3><a name="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></H3>
|
|
|
|
Currently this is not possible because the wxConfig family of classes is
|
|
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
|
|
need to write to HKLM.<P>
|
|
|
|
First, you can use wxRegKey directly, for example:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
wxRegKey regKey;
|
|
|
|
wxString idName(wxT("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\"));
|
|
idName += packid;
|
|
|
|
regKey.SetName(idName);
|
|
|
|
{
|
|
wxLogNull dummy;
|
|
if (!regKey.Create())
|
|
{
|
|
idName = wxT("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\");
|
|
idName += packid;
|
|
regKey.SetName(idName);
|
|
if (!regKey.Create())
|
|
return FALSE;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (!regKey.SetValue(wxT("THING"), (long) thing)) err += 1;
|
|
|
|
regKey.Close();
|
|
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
Or, you can employ this trick suggested by Istvan Kovacs:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
class myGlobalConfig : public wxConfig
|
|
{
|
|
myGlobalConfig() :
|
|
wxConfig ("myApp", "myCompany", "", "", wxCONFIG_USE_GLOBAL_FILE)
|
|
{};
|
|
bool Write(const wxString& key, const wxString& value);
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
bool myGlobalConfig::Write (const wxString& key, const wxString& value)
|
|
{
|
|
wxString path = wxString ("SOFTWARE\\myCompany\\myApp\\") + wxPathOnly(key);
|
|
wxString new_path = path.Replace ("/", "\\", true);
|
|
wxString new_key = wxFileNameFromPath (key);
|
|
LocalKey().SetName (wxRegKey::HKLM, path);
|
|
return wxConfig::Write (new_key, value);
|
|
}
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
</font>
|
|
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
|
|
</HTML>
|