
Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
Where to Buy |
Chapter Summary |
CD-ROM Contents |
Examples |
Errata
wxWidgets now has its own 700-page book to help you learn or brush up on
your cross-platform programming skills. Written by Julian Smart and Kevin Hock
with Stefan Csomor, "Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets" was
published on July 27th 2005 by Prentice Hall. It's part of Bruce Perens' Open
Source Series.
"Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets is the best way for beginning
developers to learn wxWidgets programming in C++, and is a valuable resource
for experienced wxWidgets programmers looking to expand their skills. This
book is a must-have both for programmers thinking of using wxWidgets and for
those already using it."
Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Software and the Open Source Applications Foundation
You can print out a one-page PDF datasheet
about the book.
Please note: from feedback we're getting, it's easy to miss the
setup instructions in Appendix B and Appendix C that tell you how to build
your own applications using popular compilers. In particular, you should find
that DialogBlocks (included on the accompanying CD-ROM) is a quick way to get
started, compiling both the wxWidgets library and your own first wxWidgets
applications.
Where to Buy
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We will be monitoring where else the book is available. The authors do not
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Thank you for your support!
Chapter Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
- What is wxWidgets, and why use it? A brief history; the wxWidgets
community; the license; wxWidgets ports and architecture explained.
Chapter 2: Getting started
- A small wxWidgets sample: the application class; the main window; the
event table; an outline of program flow.
Chapter 3: Event handling
- Event tables and handlers; how a button click is processed; skipping
events; pluggable and dynamic event handlers; defining custom events;
window identifiers.
Chapter 4: Window basics
- The main features of a window explained; a quick guide to the commonest
window classes; base window classes such as wxWindow; top-level windows;
container windows; non-static controls; static controls; menus; control
bars.
Chapter 5: Drawing and printing
- Device context principles; the main device context classes described;
buffered drawing; drawing tools; device context drawing functions; using
the printing framework; 3D graphics with wxGLCanvas.
Chapter 6: Handling input
- Handling mouse and mouse wheel events; handling keyboard events; keycodes;
modifier key variations; accelerators; handling joystick events.
Chapter 7: Window layout using sizers
- Layout basics; sizers introduced; common features of sizers; programming
with sizers. Further layout issues: dialog units; platform-adaptive
layouts; dynamic layouts.
Chapter 8: Using standard dialogs
- Informative dialogs such as wxMessageBox and wxProgressDialog; file and
directory dialogs such as wxFileDialog; choice and selection dialogs such
as wxColourDialog and wxFontDialog; entry dialogs such as
wxTextEntryDialog and wxFindReplaceDialog; printing dialogs:
wxPageSetupDialog and wxPrintDialog.
Chapter 9: Creating custom dialogs
- Steps in creating a custom dialog; an example: PersonalRecordDialog;
deriving a new class; designing data storage; coding the controls and
layout; data transfer and validation; handling events; handling UI
updates; adding help; adapting dialogs for small devices; further
considerations in dialog design; using wxWidgets resource files; loading
resources; using binary and embedded resource files; translating
resources; the XRC format; writing resource handlers; foreign
controls.
Chapter 10: Programming with images
- Image classes in wxWidgets; programming with wxBitmap; programming with
wxIcon; programming with wxCursor; programming with wxImage; image lists
and icon bundles; customizing wxWidgets graphics with wxArtProvider.
Chapter 11: Clipboard and drag and drop
- Data objects; data source duties; data target duties; using the clipboard;
implementing drag and drop; implementing a drag source; implementing a
drop target; using standard drop targets; creating a custom drop target;
more on wxDataObject; drag and drop helpers in wxWidgets.
Chapter 12: Advanced window classes
- wxTreeCtrl; wxListCtrl; wxWizard; wxHtmlWindow; wxGrid; wxTaskBarIcon;
writing your own controls; the control declaration; defining a new event
class; displaying information; handling input; defining default event
handlers; implementing validators; implementing resource handlers;
determining control appearance.
Chapter 13: Data structure classes
- Why not STL? wxString; wxStringTokenizer; wxRegEx; wxArray; wxList;
wxHashMap; dates and times; wxObject; wxLongLong; wxPoint and wxRealPoint;
wxRect; wxRegion; wxSize; wxVariant.
Chapter 14: Files and streams
- wxFile and wxFFile; wxTextFile; wxTempFile; wxDir; wxFileName; file
functions; file streams; memory and string streams; data streams; socket
streams; filter streams; zip streams; virtual file systems.
Chapter 15: Memory management, debugging and error checking
- Creating and deleting window objects; creating and copying drawing
objects; initializing your application object; cleaning up your
application; detecting memory leaks and other errors; facilities for
defensive programming; error reporting; providing run-time type
information; using wxModule; loading dynamic libraries; exception
handling; debugging tips.
Chapter 16: Writing international applications
- Introduction to internationalization; providing translations; using
message catalogs; using wxLocale; character encodings and Unicode;
converting data; help files; numbers and dates; other media; an
example.
Chapter 17: Writing multithreaded applications
- When to use threads, and when not to; using wxThread; thread creation;
starting the thread; how to pause a thread or wait for an external
condition; termination; synchronization objects; wxMutex; deadlocks;
wxCriticalSection; wxCondition; wxSemaphore; the wxWidgets thread sample;
alternatives to multithreading: wxTimer, idle time processing, and
yielding.
Chapter 18: Programming with wxSocket
- Socket classes and functionality overview; introduction to sockets and
basic socket processing; the client; the server; connecting to a server;
socket events; socket status and error notifications; sending and
receiving socket data; creating a server; socket event recap; socket
flags; blocking and non-blocking sockets in wxWidgets; how flags affect
socket behavior; using wxSocket as a standard socket; using socket
streams; alternatives to wxSocket.
Chapter 19: Working with documents and views
- Document/view basics; choosing an interface style; creating and using
frame classes; defining your document and view classes; defining your
window classes; using wxDocManager and wxDocTemplate; other document/view
capabilities; standard identifiers; printing and previewing; file history;
explicit document creation; strategies for implementing undo/redo.
Chapter 20: Perfecting your application
- Single instance versus multiple instances; modifying event handling;
reducing flicker; using a help controller; extended wxWidgets HTML help;
authoring help; other ways to provide help; parsing the command line;
storing application resources; invoking other applications; launching
documents; redirecting process input and output; managing application
settings; application installation on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X;
following UI design guidelines.
Appendix A: Installing wxWidgets
- Downloading and unpacking wxWidgets; configuration/build options; Windows
- Microsoft Visual Studio and VC++ command-line; Windows - Borland C++;
Windows - MinGW with and without MSYS; Unix/Linux and Mac OS X - GCC;
customizing setup.h; rebuilding after updating wxWidgets files; using
"contrib" libraries.
Appendix B: Building your own wxWidgets applications
- Windows - Microsoft Visual Studio; Linux - KDevelop; Mac OS X - Xcode;
makefiles; cross-platform builds using Bakefile; wxWidgets symbols and
headers; using wx-config.
Appendix C: Creating applications with DialogBlocks
- What is DialogBlocks? Installing and upgrading DialogBlocks; the
DialogBlocks interface; the sample project; compiling the sample; creating
a new project; creating a dialog; creating a frame; creating an
application object; debugging your application.
Appendix D: Other features in wxWidgets
- Further window classes; ODBC classes; MIME types manager; network
functionality; multimedia classes; embedded web browsers; accessibility;
OLE automation; renderer classes; event loops.
Appendix E: Third-party tools for wxWidgets
- Language bindings such as wxPython and wxPerl; tools such as wxDesigner,
DialogBlocks and poEdit; add-on libraries such as wxMozilla, wxCURL,
wxPropertyGrid.
Appendix F: wxWidgets application showcase
- Descriptions of notable wxWidgets applications, such as AOL Communicator
and Audacity.
Appendix G: Using the CD-ROM
- Browsing the CD-ROM; the CD-ROM contents.
Appendix H: How wxWidgets processes events
- An illustrated description of how event processing works.
Appendix I: Event classes and macros
- A summary of the important event classes and macros.
Appendix J: Code Listings
- Code listings for the PersonalRecordDialog and the wxWizard examples.
Appendix K: Porting from MFC
- General observations; application initialization; message maps; converting
dialogs and other resources; documents and views; printing; string
handling and translation; database access; configurable control bars;
equivalent functionality by macros and classes.
The CD-ROM Contents
The acommpanying CD-ROM contains the following:
- wxWidgets 2.6.1: wxWidgets source code for Windows, Linux,
Mac OS X and more platforms.
- Sample Code: Browse the samples and code snippets from the book,
using an HTML interface.
- Bonus Sample: The CD also contains a 'bonus' sample, a little
image viewer application called Riffle with source and binaries for four
platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC 2003. The sample has
scripts to create installations for all four platforms, which you can
adapt for your own applications.
- DialogBlocks Personal Edition: Compile wxWidgets and the samples
easily with DialogBlocks Personal Edition, a version of the
sophisticated dialog editor
from Anthemion Software Ltd., for personal use. Binaries are supplied
for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
- Windows Compilers: The following Windows compilers are supplied,
and all may be used to compile wxWidgets (using DialogBlocks or other
means).
Examples
You can download the examples from http://www.anthemion.co.uk/wxWidgetsBook/wxbookexamples.zip (9.6 MB)
Errata
Please see the
errata page.