*****                  Announcing wxWindows 1.50                  *****
*****  A Free C++ GUI toolkit for Motif, Open Look, Windows 3.1   *****
*****                       and Windows NT                        *****

>>> wxWindows is a toolkit for developing multi-platform, graphical
    applications from the same body of C++ code.

Since the source is provided, wxWindows allows the programmer to add
features as needed. For many programmers, however, wxWindows should be
adequate for a range of applications.

>>> Uses include:

* development of applications for delivery on several platforms
* single-platform development, as a high-level wrapper around XView,
  Motif or Windows

>>> Included in this fourth release:

* Simple-to-use, object-oriented API
* Graphics calls include splines, polylines, rounded rectangles, etc.
* XView-style programmatic panel/dialog item layout
* Support for menu bars and status lines
* Toolbar class
* Pens, brushes, fonts, icons, cursors, bitmaps
* Easy, object-oriented interprocess comms (DDE subset) under
  Windows 3 *and* UNIX
* Encapsulated PostScript generation under UNIX, Windows 3 printing on PC
* Virtually automatic MDI support under Windows
* Support for Windows 3 printer and file selector common dialogs, with
  equivalents for UNIX
* Under Windows 3, support for copying metafiles to the clipboard
* Programmatic form facility for building form-like screens fast,
  with constraints on values
* Applications can access Windows Help or wxHelp hypertext help system
* Optional interface to NASA's CLIPS, so an interpreted GUI-building facility can
  be included in wxWindows programs, or used stand-alone.
* Tex2RTF utility for maintaining online help and printed manuals from single
  LaTeX source
* Tree and graph layout classes
* All source
* Several examples
* Comprehensive reference manual, with reference in wxHelp and WinHelp form

>>> Requirements:

* On PC, one of Microsoft C/C++, Borland C++ 3.1, Turbo C++ 3.1, Zortech C++
* On UNIX, XView 3.x or Motif 1.x and GCC/G++ (or compatible compiler, such as
  AT&T C++). wxWindows is compatible with most UNIX platforms, but is most
  tested on Sun.
* About 8 MB of disk space.

>>> Where to get it

wxWindows is currently available from the Artificial Intelligence
Applications Institute by anonymous FTP.
 
FTP to skye.aiai.ed.ac.uk (192.41.104.6), log on as `anonymous', and
give your user ID as password. Change directory into pub/wxwin, change
transmission method to binary, and get wxwin150.tar.Z (UNIX) and/or
wxwin150.zip (PC).  Both archives contain the source code for both
platforms, but only the executable demos for the specific platform (UNIX
and Windows respectively). The demos are available separately as
demo.tar.Z (or wxwindem.tar.Z) and demo.zip (or wxwindem.zip).

*** PLEASE NOTE *** that currently wxWindows 1.50 is in BETA, so look in
the /pub/wxwin/beta directory for the latest version (now in two files
for each format).

wxWindows is expected to be uploaded to the CICA Windows 3 archive at
Indiana University (ftp.cica.indiana.edu), and the British HENSA public
domain software archive (pdsoft.lancs.ac.uk).

You can view the documentation for wxWindows on the World Wide Web
using a viewer such as Mosaic. See http://info.desy.de/user/projects/C++.html,
under the heading Packages.

>>> Installation

See install.txt.

>>> Bugs, etc.

wxWindows, like most other software, has the occasional buglet. I
would be grateful for bug reports (even better, fixes) though I can't
guarantee to do anything about them. Future releases of wxWindows are
likely to be more stable and more complete.  Meanwhile, do send me your
enhancements, and I will try to incorporate them in future releases.
Here are some ideas for contributions:

* more Xlib wrappers
* an enhanced, editable text subwindow for Windows
* an Xt-like constraint algorithm for laying out widgets
* a Mac version

>>> wxWindows discussion forum

There is a mailing list for users or potential users of wxWindows. Send
a request to wxwin-users-request@aiai.ed.ac.uk or J.Smart@ed.ac.uk to
subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the mailing list. General discussions
take place on wxwin-users@aiai.ed.ac.uk.

>>> In the pipeline

* Better clipboard support
* Automated GUI testing facilities
* DevGuide to wxWindows utility (user contribution, in beta testing)
* Text-only CURSES version (user contribution, in alpha testing)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Julian Smart, December 1993

Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
University of Edinburgh
80 South Bridge
Edinburgh
Scotland
EH1 1HN

EMAIL: J.Smart@ed.ac.uk
TEL:   031 650 2746