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wxWidgets - Cross-Platform GUI Library
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Overview

wxWidgets was started in 1992 by Julian Smart at the University of Edinburgh. Initially started as a project for creating applications that were portable across Unix and Windows, it has grown to support macOS, GTK+, and many other toolkits and platforms (see the history page for more details). The number of developers contributing to the project is now in the hundreds and the toolkit has a strong userbase that includes everyone from open source developers to corporations. So what is special about wxWidgets compared with other cross-platform GUI toolkits?

wxWidgets gives you a single, easy-to-use API for writing GUI applications on multiple platforms that still utilize the native platform’s controls and utilities. Link with the appropriate library for your platform and compiler, and your application will adopt the look and feel appropriate to that platform. On top of great GUI functionality, wxWidgets gives you: online help, network programming, streams, clipboard and drag and drop, multithreading, image loading and saving in a variety of popular formats, HTML viewing and printing, and much more.

Although wxWidgets is written in C++, you can use it with a variety of languages including Python, Perl, and C#. If using wxWidgets with C++, you will link your code to a different version of the library on each platform. Since the wxWidgets libraries are built and compiled in C++ rather than a language like Java, they are high-performance and nearly as fast as using the native toolkits themselves.

Supported Platforms

wxWidgets currently supports the following platforms:

  • wxGTK: The recommended port for Linux and other Unix variants, using GTK+ version 2.6 or higher.
  • wxMSW: The port for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows variants including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 and 11.
  • wxOSX/Cocoa: For delivering Cocoa-based applications on macOS 10.10 and above.
  • wxQt: wxQt is a port of wxWidgets using Qt libraries. It requires Qt 5 or later.
  • wxX11: A port for Linux and Unix variants targetting X11 displays using a generic widget set.
  • wxMotif: A port for Linux and Unix variants using OpenMotif or Lesstif widget sets.

Additionally the following legacy platforms are supported by the old stable 3.0 release:

  • wxMSW: Legacy 32-bit Windows versions like Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000
  • wxMac: For delivering Carbon applications on Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.6.
  • wxOSX/Carbon: For delivering 32-bit Carbon-based applications on Mac OS X 10.5 and above.

Features and Functionality

wxWidgets has hundreds of classes covering many areas of application development, which we cannot adequately summarize in this short document. GUI components range from a simple button component to an HTML list box; from a basic message box to a print preview window. Other areas include:

  • Window Layout Using Sizers
  • Device Contexts (along with pens, brushes and fonts)
  • Comprehensive Event Handling System
  • HTML Help Viewer
  • Sound and Video Playback
  • Unicode and Internationalization Support
  • Document/View Architecture
  • Printing Archiecture
  • Sockets
  • Multithreading
  • File and Directory Manipulation
  • Online and Context-Sensitive Help
  • HTML Rendering
  • Basic Containers
  • Image Loading, Saving, Drawing and Manipulation
  • Date-Time Library and Timers
  • Error Handling
  • Clipboard and Drag-and-Drop

You may find it helpful to browse the reference manual to get a feel for supported functionality.

The wxWidgets License

The wxWidgets library is distributed under the wxWindows License, which is based on the L-GPL but with an exception clause. The exception clause allows you to link your application either dynamically or statically to wxWidgets without the requirement to distribute the source for your your own application. In other words, you can use wxWidgets for either free or commercial projects, at no cost. The license encourages you to give back enhancements you make to the wxWidgets library itself.

Who uses wxWidgets?

wxWidgets is used by a huge range of organisations and individuals all over the world. It’s equally at home being the basis for a consumer product selling hundreds of thousands of copies as it is in university or open source projects. wxWidgets has been used to help companies create leading-edge chips, to help drill for oil, to control pilotless aircraft, and to test components of space telescopes. Many companies are dependent on wxWidgets and the cross-platform advantage it gives them. Some of the better-known organisations who have used wxWidgets include AOL, AMD, Lockheed Martin, Xerox, NASA, and the Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF). wxWidgets applications that you may be familiar with include AVG AntiVirus, Forte Agent, Audacity, Filezilla, iPodder, and Tortoise CVS. It’s impossible to know how many wxWidgets developers there are but there is a very active wxWidgets community with over 1,800 subscribers to the bulletin board alone.

What are the benefits of using wxWidgets?

The benefits include the following:

  • Cost savings from writing code once that will run on Windows, Unix, macOS, and other platforms.
  • Customer satisfaction from delivering stable, fast, attractive applications with a native look and feel.
  • Increased productivity from the wide variety of classes that wxWidgets provides, both for creating great GUIs and for general application development.
  • Increased market share due to support for platforms you may not have previously considered, and the ability to internationalize your applications.
  • Support from a large, active wxWidgets community that answers questions helpfully and provides prompt bug-fixing.
  • Access to the source, for enhancement and trouble-shooting.

How do I learn wxWidgets using C++?

When you download wxWidgets, you get a 3,000 page reference manual and around 80 samples and demos. This provides a mass of information to help you get started, but the Cross-Platform GUI Programming With wxWidgets book by Julian Smart and Kevin Hock with Stefan Csomor is also a very valuable resource. The dialog editor on the accompanying CD will help you get to grips with sizers, a flexible layout mechanism.

How do I learn wxWidgets using Python?

The wxPython wiki provides an excellent guide for getting started, but if you still need additional help, take a look at the wxPython in Action book or the newer wxPython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook. Check out the wxPython website to download the wxPython libraries, along with the docs and demos package. The docs and demos package contains an application showing the use of nearly every class available in wxWidgets, and the demos are dynamically editable so that you can make changes and see the effects in real- time. This is an excellent way to learn how the toolkit works.

Additional Support

You can find free community support from fellow developers on the forums and mailing lists. The community-edited wxWiki contains many guides that help supplement the official documentation, and commercial support is also available from several companies.

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