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git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@18040 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775
472 lines
21 KiB
HTML
472 lines
21 KiB
HTML
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 VLINK="#00376A" LINK="#00529C" ALINK="#313063">
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<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
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<table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0>
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<tr>
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<td bgcolor="#004080" align=left height=24 background="images/bluetitlegradient.gif">
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<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
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<b>wxWindows 2 for Windows FAQ</b>
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</font>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<P>
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See also <a href="faq.htm">top-level FAQ page</a>.
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<hr>
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<h3>List of questions in this category</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#wince">What about Windows CE?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<h3><a name="platforms">Which Windows platforms are supported?</a></h3>
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wxWindows 2 can be used to develop and deliver applications on Windows 3.1, Win32s,
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Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. A Windows CE
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version is being looked into (see below).<P>
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wxWindows 2 is designed to make use of WIN32 features and controls. However, unlike Microsoft,
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we have not forgotten users of 16-bit Windows. Most features
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work under Windows 3.1, including wxTreeCtrl and wxListCtrl using the generic implementation.
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However, don't expect very Windows-95-specific classes to work, such as wxTaskBarIcon. The wxRegConfig
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class doesn't work either because the Windows 3.1 registry is very simplistic. Check out the 16-bit
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makefiles to see what other files have been left out.
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<P>
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16-bit compilation is supported under Visual C++ 1.5, and Borland BC++ 4 to 5.
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<P>
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wxWindows 2 for Windows will also compile on Unix with gcc using TWIN32 from <a href="http://www.willows.com" target=_top>Willows</a>,
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although TWIN32 is still in a preliminary state. The resulting executables are
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Unix binaries that work with the TWIN32 Windows API emulator.<P>
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You can also compile wxWindows 2 for Windows on Unix with Cygwin or Mingw32, resulting
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in executables that will run on Windows. So in theory you could write your applications
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using wxGTK or wxMotif, then check/debug your wxWindows for Windows
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programs with TWIN32, and finally produce an ix86 Windows executable using Cygwin/Mingw32,
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without ever needing a copy of Microsoft Windows. See the Technical Note on the Web site detailing cross-compilation.<P>
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<h3><a name="wince">What about Windows CE?</a></h3>
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This is under consideration, though we need to get wxWindows Unicode-aware first.
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There are other interesting issues, such as how to combine the menubar and toolbar APIs
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as Windows CE requires. But there's no doubt that it will be possible, albeit
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by mostly cutting down wxWindows 2 API functionality, and adding a few classes here
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and there. Since wxWindows for 2 produces small binaries (less than 300K for
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the statically-linked 'minimal' sample), shoehorning wxWindows 2 into a Windows CE device's limited
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storage should not be a problem.<P>
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<h3><a name="winxp">What do I need to do for Windows XP?</a></h3>
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In the same directory as you have your executable (e.g. foo.exe) you
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put a file called foo.exe.manifest in which you have something like
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the following:
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<pre>
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
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<assembly
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xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"
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manifestVersion="1.0">
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<assemblyIdentity
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processorArchitecture="x86"
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version="5.1.0.0"
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type="win32"
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name="foo.exe"/>
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<description>Foo program</description>
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<dependency>
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<dependentAssembly>
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<assemblyIdentity
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type="win32"
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name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
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version="6.0.0.0"
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publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
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language="*"
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processorArchitecture="x86"/>
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</dependentAssembly>
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</dependency>
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</assembly>
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</pre>
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<h3><a name="compilers">What compilers are supported?</a></h3>
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Please see the wxWindows 2 for Windows install.txt file for up-to-date information, but
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currently the following are known to work:<P>
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<ul>
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<li>Visual C++ 1.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
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<li>Borland C++ 4.5, 5.0
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<li>Borland C++Builder 1.0, 3.0
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<li>Watcom C++ 10.6 (WIN32)
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<li>Cygwin b20
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<li>Mingw32
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<li>MetroWerks CodeWarrior 4
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</ul>
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<P>
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There is a linking problem with Symantec C++ which I hope someone can help solve.
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<P>
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<h3><a name="bestcompiler">Which is the best compiler to use with wxWindows 2?</a></h3>
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It's partly a matter of taste, but I (JACS) prefer Visual C++ since the debugger is very
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good, it's very stable, the documentation is extensive, and it generates small executables.
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Since project files are plain text, it's easy for me to generate appropriate project files
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for wxWindows samples.<P>
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Borland C++ is fine - and very fast - but it's hard (impossible?) to use the debugger without using project files, and
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the debugger is nowhere near up to VC++'s quality. The IDE isn't great.<P>
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C++Builder's power isn't really used with wxWindows since it needs integration with its
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own class library (VCL). For wxWindows, I've only used it with makefiles, in which case
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it's almost identical to BC++ 5.0 (the same makefiles can be used).<P>
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You can't beat Cygwin's price (free), and you can debug adequately using gdb. However, it's
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quite slow to compile since it does not use precompiled headers.<P>
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CodeWarrior is cross-platform - you can debug and generate Windows executables from a Mac, but not
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the other way around I think - but the IDE is, to my mind, a bit primitive.<P>
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Watcom C++ is a little slow and the debugger is not really up to today's standards.<P>
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Among the free compilers the best choice seem to be Borland C++ command line
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tools and mingw32 (port of gcc to Win32). Both of them are supported by
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wxWindows.
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<h3><a name="unicode">Is Unicode supported?</a></h3>
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Yes, Unicode is fully supported under Windows NT/2000 (Windows 9x don't
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have Unicode support anyhow).
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<h3><a name="doublebyte">Does wxWindows support double byte fonts (Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc.)?</a></h3>
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An answer from <a href="mailto:goedde@logosoft.de">Klaus Goedde</a>:<p>
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"For Japanese under Win2000, it seems that wxWindows has no problems to work with double byte char sets
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(I mean DBCS, that's not Unicode). First you have to install Japanese support on your Win2K system
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and choose for ANSI translation
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage=932 (default is 1252 for Western).
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Then you can see all the funny Japanese letters under wxWindows too.<P>
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In a wxTextCtrl control you have to set the window style "wxTE_RICH", otherwise this control shows the wrong
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letters.
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I don't now whether it works on non W2K systems, because I'm just starting using wxWindows."
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<P>
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<h3><a name="dll">Can you compile wxWindows 2 as a DLL?</a></h3>
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Yes (using the Visual C++ or Borland C++ makefile), but be aware that distributing DLLs is a thorny issue
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and you may be better off compiling statically-linked applications, unless you're
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delivering a suite of separate programs, or you're compiling a lot of wxWindows applications
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and have limited hard disk space.<P>
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With a DLL approach, and with different versions and configurations of wxWindows
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needing to be catered for, the end user may end up with a host of large DLLs in his or her Windows system directory,
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negating the point of using DLLs. Of course, this is not a problem just associated with
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wxWindows!
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<P>
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<h3><a name="exesize">How can I reduce executable size?</a></h3>
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You can compile wxWindows as a DLL (see above, VC++/BC++ only at present). You should also
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compile your programs for release using non-debugging and space-optimisation options, but
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take with VC++ 5/6 space optimisation: it can sometimes cause problems.<P>
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Statically-linked wxWindows 2 programs are smaller than wxWindows 1.xx programs, because of the way
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wxWindows 2 has been designed to reduce dependencies between classes, and other
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techniques. The linker will not include code from the library that is not (directly or
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indirectly) referenced
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by your application. So for example, the 'minimal' sample is less than 500KB using VC++ 6
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(note that this figure may be greater for the latest version of wxWindows).<P>
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If you want to distribute really small executables, you can
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use <a href="http://www.un4seen.com/petite/" target=_top>Petite</a>
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by Ian Luck. This nifty utility compresses Windows executables by around 50%, so your 500KB executable
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will shrink to a mere 250KB. With this sort of size, there is reduced incentive to
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use DLLs. Another good compression tool is <a href="http://upx.sourceforge.net/" target=_top>UPX</a>.
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<P>
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Please do not be surprised if MinGW produces a statically-linked minimal executable of 1 MB. Firstly, gcc
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produces larger executables than some compilers. Secondly, this figure will
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include most of the overhead of wxWindows, so as your application becomes more
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complex, the overhead becomes proportionaly less significant. And thirdly, trading executable compactness
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for the enormous increase in productivity you get with wxWindows is almost always well worth it.
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<H3><a name="mfc">Is wxWindows compatible with MFC?</a></H3>
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There is a sample which demonstrates MFC and wxWindows code co-existing in the same
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application. However, don't expect to be able to enable wxWindows windows with OLE-2
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functionality using MFC.<P>
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<H3><a name="asuffix">Why do I get errors about FooBarA when I only use FooBar in my program?</H3>
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If you get errors like
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<p>
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<center>
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<tt>no matching function for call to 'wxDC::DrawTextA(const char[5], int,
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int)'</tt>
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</center>
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<p>
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or similar ones for the other functions, i.e. the compiler error messages
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mention the function with the <tt>'A'</tt> suffix while you didn't
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use it in your code, the explanation is that you had included
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<tt><windows.h></tt> header which redefines many symbols to have such
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suffix (or <tt>'W'</tt> in the Unicode builds).
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<p>
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The fix is to either not include <tt><windows.h></tt> at all or include
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<tt>"wx/msw/winundef.h"</tt> immediately after it.
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<H3><a name="newerrors">Why my code fails to compile with strange errors about new operator?</a></H3>
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The most common cause of this problem is the memory debugging settings in
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<tt>wx/msw/setup.h</tt>. You have several choices:
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<ul>
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<li> Either disable overloading the global operator new completely by
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setting <tt>wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS</tt> and
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<tt>wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS</tt> to 0 in this file
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<li> Or leave them on but do <tt>#undef new</tt> after including any
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wxWindows headers, like this the memory debugging will be still on
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for wxWindows sources but off for your own code
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</ul>
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Notice that IMHO the first solution is preferable for VC++ users who can use
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the <a href="#vcdebug">VC++ CRT memory debugging features</a> instead.
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<H3><a name="mfcport">How do I port MFC applications to wxWindows?</a></H3>
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Set up your interface from scratch using wxWindows (especially wxDesigner --
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it'll save you a <i>lot</i> of time) and when you have a shell prepared, you can start
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'pouring in' code from the MFC app, with appropriate
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modifications. This is the approach I have used, and I found
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it very satisfactory. A two-step process then - reproduce the bare
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interface first, then wire it up afterwards. That way you deal
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with each area of complexity separately. Don't try to think MFC
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and wxWindows simultaneously from the beginning - it is easier to
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reproduce the initial UI by looking at the behaviour of the MFC
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app, not its code.
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<H3><a name="crash">Why do I sometimes get bizarre crash problems using VC++ 5/6?</a></H3>
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Some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler
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options (and of course this isn't limited to wxWindows).
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If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please
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check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison
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if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined
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symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in
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the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile.<P>
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VC++ 5's optimization code seems to be broken and can
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cause problems: this can be seen when deleting an object Dialog
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Editor, in Release mode with optimizations on. If in doubt,
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switch off optimisations, although this will result in much
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larger executables. It seems possible that the library can be created with
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strong optimization, so long as the application is not strongly
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optimized. For example, in wxWindows project, set to 'Minimum
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Size'. In Dialog Editor project, set to 'Customize: Favor Small
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Code' (and no others). This will then work.<P>
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<H3><a name="makefiles">How are the wxWindows makefiles edited under Windows?</a></H3>
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As of wxWindows 2.1, there is a new system written by Vadim Zeitlin, that
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generates the makefiles from templates using tmake.<P>
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Here are Vadim's notes:<P>
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<blockquote>
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To use these new makefiles, you don't need anything (but see below).
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However, you should NOT modify them because these files will be
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rewritten when I regenerate them using tmake the next time. So, if
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you find a problem with any of these makefiles (say, makefile.b32)
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you'll need to modify the corresponding template (b32.t in this
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example) and regenerate the makefile using tmake.<P>
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tmake can be found at
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<a href="http://www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html" target=_new>www.troll.no/freebies/tmake.html</a>.
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It's a Perl5 program and so it needs Perl (doh). There is a binary for
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Windows (available from the same page), but I haven't used it, so
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I don't know if it works as flawlessly as "perl tmake" does (note
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for people knowing Perl: don't try to run tmake with -w, it won't
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do you any good). Using it extremely simple: to regenerate makefile.b32
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just go to distrib/msw/tmake and type<P>
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<pre>tmake -t b32 wxwin.pro -o ../../src/msw/makefile.b32</pre><P>
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The makefiles are untested - I don't have any of Borland, Watcom or
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Symantec and I don't have enough diskspace to recompile even with
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VC6 using makefiles. The new makefiles are as close as possible to the
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old ones, but not closer: in fact, there has been many strange things
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(should I say bugs?) in some of makefiles, some files were not compiled
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without any reason etc. Please test them and notify me about any problems.
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Better yet, modify the template files to generate the correct makefiles
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and check them in.<P>
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The templates are described in tmake ref manual (1-2 pages of text)
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and are quite simple. They do contain some Perl code, but my Perl is
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primitive (very C like) so it should be possible for anybody to make
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trivial modifications to it (I hope that only trivial modifications
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will be needed). I've tagged the ol makefiles as MAKEFILES_WITHOUT_TMAKE
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in the cvs, so you can always retrieve them and compare the new ones,
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this will make it easier to solve the problems you might have.<P>
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Another important file is filelist.txt: it contains the list of all
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files to be compiled. Some of them are only compiled in 16/32 bit mode.
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Some other are only compiled with some compilers (others can't compile
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them) - all this info is contained in this file.<P>
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So now adding a new file to wxWindows is as easy as modifying filelist.txt
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(and Makefile.ams for Unix ports) and regenerating the makefiles - no
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need to modify all files manually any more.<P>
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Finally, there is also a file vc6.t which I use myself: this one
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generates a project file for VC++ 6.0 (I didn't create vc5.t because
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I don't need it and can't test it, but it should be trivial to create
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one from vc6.t - probably the only things to change would be the
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version number in the very beginning and the /Z option - VC5 doesn't
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support edit-and=continue). This is not an officially supported way
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of building wxWindows (that is, nobody guarantees that it will work),
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but it has been very useful to me and I hope it will be also for
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others. To generate wxWindows.dsp run<P>
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<pre>tmake -t vc6 wxwin.pro -o ../../wxWindows.dsp</pre><P>
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Then just include this project in any workspace or open it from VC IDE
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and it will create a new workspace for you.<P>
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If all goes well, I'm planning to create a template file for Makefile.ams
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under src/gtk and src/motif and also replace all makefiles in the samples
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subdirectories with the project files from which all the others will be
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generated. At least it will divide the number of files in samples
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directory by 10 (and the number of files to be maintained too).
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</blockquote>
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<P>
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<H3><a name="vcdebug">How do you use VC++'s memory leak checking instead of that in wxWindows?</a></H3>
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Vadim Zeitlin:
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<pre>
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On the VC++ level, it's just the matter of calling _CrtSetDbgFlag() in the very
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beginning of the program. In wxWindows, this is done automatically when
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compiling with VC++ in debug mode unless wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS or
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__NO_VC_CRTDBG__ are defined - this check is done in wx/msw/msvcrt.h which
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is included from app.cpp which then calls wxCrtSetDbgFlag() without any
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ifdefs.
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This works quite well: at the end of the program, all leaked blocks with their
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malloc count are shown. This number (malloc count) can be used to determine
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where exactly the object was allocated: for this it's enough to set the variable
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_crtBreakAlloc (look in VC98\crt\srs\dbgheap.c line 326) to this number and
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a breakpoint will be triggered when the block with this number is allocated.
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For simple situations it works like a charm. For something more complicated
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like reading uninitialized memory a specialized tool is probably better...
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Regards,
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VZ
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</pre>
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<P>
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<H3><a name="shortcutproblem">Why are menu hotkeys or shortcuts not working in my application?</a></H3>
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This can happen if you have a child window intercepting EVT_CHAR events and swallowing
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all keyboard input. You should ensure that event.Skip() is called for all input that
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isn'used by the event handler.<P>
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It can also happen if you append the submenu to the parent
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menu {\it before} you have added your menu items. Do the append {\it after} adding
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your items, or accelerators may not be registered properly.<P>
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<H3><a name="#regconfig">Why can I not write to the HKLM part of the registry with wxRegConfig?</a></H3>
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Currently this is not possible because the wxConfig family of classes is
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supposed to deal with per-user application configuration data, and HKLM is
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only supposed to be writeable by a user with Administrator privileges. In theory,
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only installers should write to HKLM. This is still a point debated by the
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wxWindows developers. There are at least two ways to work around it if you really
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need to write to HKLM.<P>
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First, you can use wxRegKey directly, for example:
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<pre>
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wxRegKey regKey;
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wxString idName(wxT("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\"));
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idName += packid;
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regKey.SetName(idName);
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{
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wxLogNull dummy;
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if (!regKey.Create())
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{
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idName = wxT("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\My Company\\My Product\\Stuff\\");
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idName += packid;
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regKey.SetName(idName);
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if (!regKey.Create())
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return FALSE;
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}
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}
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if (!regKey.SetValue(wxT("THING"), (long) thing)) err += 1;
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regKey.Close();
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</pre>
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Or, you can employ this trick suggested by Istvan Kovacs:
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<pre>
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class myGlobalConfig : public wxConfig
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{
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myGlobalConfig() :
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wxConfig ("myApp", "myCompany", "", "", wxCONFIG_USE_GLOBAL_FILE)
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{};
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bool Write(const wxString& key, const wxString& value);
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}
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bool myGlobalConfig::Write (const wxString& key, const wxString& value)
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{
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wxString path = wxString ("SOFTWARE\\myCompany\\myApp\\") + wxPathOnly(key);
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wxString new_path = path.Replace ("/", "\\", true);
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wxString new_key = wxFileNameFromPath (key);
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LocalKey().SetName (wxRegKey::HKLM, path);
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return wxConfig::Write (new_key, value);
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}
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</pre>
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