WxWidgets

Related Topics:
wxWidgets

In computing, wxWidgets (formerly known as wxWindows) is an open source, cross-platform widget toolkit; that is, a library of basic elements for building a graphical user interface (GUI).

WxWidgets is released under "a permissive modified (but explicitly OSI-approved) LGPL". It was started in 1992 by Julian Smart who, as primus inter pares, is still a core developer.

WxWidgets enables a program to compile and run on several computer platforms with minimal or no code changes. It covers systems like Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux/Unix (for X11, Motif, and GTK+), OpenVMS, and OS/2. An embedded version is under development.

The library is implemented in C++, but bindings are available for many commonly used programming languages, among them, Python (wxPython), Smalltalk (wxSqueak), Perl, Java and even Javascript (wxJS). For a complete list, with links to the respective project sites, see the external references at the end of this article.

WxWidgets is best described as a native toolkit. Instead of emulating the display of widgets using graphic primitives on the different supported platforms, wxWidgets provides a thin abstraction to the native widgets. In other words, the underlying wxWidgets code prefers calling a native widget on the platform, instead of reimplementing custom widgets. This leads to a faster, more native looking interface when compared to toolkits like Swing (for Java).

WxWidgets is not just designed to display GUIs. It also has a built in ODBC based database library, an Interprocess Communication layer, socket networking functionality, and more.

Name change from wxWindows to wxWidgets

On February 20th, 2004, the developers of wxWindows announced that the project was changing its name to wxWidgets, as a result of pressures from Microsoft on Julian Smart to respect Microsoft's United Kingdom trademark of the term Windows.

Software that uses wxWidgets

Audacity - an open source sound editor
AOL Communicator
BitWise IM - BitWise is an encrypted cross-platform instant messenger featuring text messaging, whiteboards, file sharing, voice chat, encryption.
Code::Blocks - The open source, cross platform Free C++ IDE
Kirix Strata - an interactive data analysis and manipulation tool
Mindscript - an open source software development environment (unrelated to the Mindscript programming language for LEGO Mindstorms)
VLC media player
Xara LX - The vector graphics application being ported to wxWidgets

External links

Official Website
Name change announcement
wxForum, unofficial forums
wxCode, additional components for wxWidgets
wyoGuide, well-designed cross-platform guidelines
wxEmbedded, wxWidgets for embedded applications
wxUniversal - The wxUniversal port is to create a set of widgets that are implemented in wxWidgets itself. wxUniversal can be compiled on platforms that have existing ports, such as Windows, but the wxUniversal widgets will replace the native ones.

Language bindings

^* binding wxBasic for the BASIC programming language
^* binding wxPerl for the Perl programming language
^* binding wxPython for the Python programming language
^* binding wxRuby for the Ruby programming language in September 2004 "early beta"
^* binding wxSqueak for the Smalltalk programming language
^* binding wxErlang for the Erlang programming language
^* binding wxLua for the Lua programming language
wx4j for Java
wxJS for JavaScript
wxHaskell for Haskell
wxEiffel for the Eiffel programming language
wx.NET for C#/.NET
wxCL (formerly wxLisp) for Common Lisp

IDE and RAD tool

Comparison of RAD designers for wxWidgets
Code::Blocks A free C++ IDE based on wxWidgets.
MinGW Developer Studio MinGW Developer Studio is a simple C/C++ IDE for MinGW, written using wxWidgets and MinGW.
wxDesigner dialog editor/RAD tool
DialogBlocks a dialog editor generating C++ and XRC
wxGlade GUI designer for wxWidgets.
wxDev-C++ A variation of the Dev-C++ IDE that incorporates a form designer for wxWidgets
wxFormBuilder An open source GUI designer for wxWidgets written in C++.

Reference documentation

Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets - the first published book covering wxWidgets specifically.
Drawing and Printing in C++ with wxWidgets - This chapter introduces the idea of the device context, generalizing the concept of a drawing surface such as a window or a printed page. It will discuss the available device context classes and the set of "drawing tools" that wxWidgets provides for handling fonts, color, line drawing, and filling.
wx-sdl - A tutorial on using wxWidgets and SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) together.

Free development toolkits and libraries | Widget toolkits | X Window System