4514447c97
git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@51975 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775
235 lines
10 KiB
C++
235 lines
10 KiB
C++
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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// Name: introduction.h
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// Purpose: Introduction page of the Doxygen manual
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// Author: wxWidgets team
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// RCS-ID: $Id$
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// Licence: wxWindows license
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/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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/*!
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@page page_introduction Introduction
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@li @ref page_introduction_whatis
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@li @ref page_introduction_why
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@li @ref page_introduction_requirements
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@li @ref page_introduction_where
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@li @ref page_introduction_acknowledgements
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<hr>
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@section page_introduction_whatis What is wxWidgets?
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wxWidgets is a C++ framework providing GUI (Graphical User
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Interface) and other facilities on more than one platform. Version 2 and higher
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currently support all desktop versions of MS Windows, Unix with GTK+ 1.x or 2.x,
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Unix with Motif, Unix with just X11, Unix with DirectFB, Mac OS X, OS/2.
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wxWidgets was originally developed at the Artificial Intelligence
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Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, for internal use,
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and was first made publicly available in 1992.
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Version 2 is a vastly improved version written and maintained by
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Julian Smart, Robert Roebling, Vadim Zeitlin, Vaclav Slavik and many others.
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This manual contains a class reference and topic overviews.
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For a selection of wxWidgets tutorials, please see the documentation page
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on the wxWidgets web site: http://www.wxwidgets.org.
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Please note that in the following, ``MS Windows" often refers to all
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platforms related to Microsoft Windows, including 32-bit and 64-bit
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variants, unless otherwise stated. All trademarks are acknowledged.
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@section page_introduction_why Why another cross-platform development tool?
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wxWidgets was developed to provide a cheap and flexible way to maximize
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investment in GUI application development. While a number of commercial
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class libraries already existed for cross-platform development,
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none met all of the following criteria:
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@li low price;
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@li source availability;
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@li simplicity of programming;
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@li support for a wide range of compilers.
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Since wxWidgets was started, several other free or almost-free
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GUI frameworks have emerged. However, none has the range of
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features, flexibility, documentation and the well-established
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development team that wxWidgets has.
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As open source software, wxWidgets has benefited from comments,
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ideas, bug fixes, enhancements and the sheer enthusiasm of
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users. This gives wxWidgets a certain advantage over its
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commercial competitors (and over free libraries without an
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independent development team), plus a robustness against the
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transience of one individual or company. This openness and
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availability of source code is especially important when the
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future of thousands of lines of application code may depend upon
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the longevity of the underlying class library.
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Version 2 goes much further than previous versions in terms of
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generality and features, allowing applications to be produced
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that are often indistinguishable from those produced using
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single-platform toolkits such as Motif, GTK+ and MFC.
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The importance of using a platform-independent class library
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cannot be overstated, since GUI application development is very
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time-consuming, and sustained popularity of particular GUIs
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cannot be guaranteed. Code can very quickly become obsolete if
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it addresses the wrong platform or audience. wxWidgets helps to
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insulate the programmer from these winds of change. Although
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wxWidgets may not be suitable for every application (such as an
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OLE-intensive program), it provides access to most of the
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functionality a GUI program normally requires, plus many extras
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such as network programming, PostScript output, and HTML
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rendering; and it can of course be extended as needs dictate.
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As a bonus, it provides a far cleaner and easier programming
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interface than the native APIs. Programmers may find it
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worthwhile to use wxWidgets even if they are developing on only
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one platform.
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It is impossible to sum up the functionality of wxWidgets in a few paragraphs, but
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here are some of the benefits:
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@li Low cost (free, in fact!)
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@li You get the source.
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@li Available on a variety of popular platforms.
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@li Works with almost all popular C++ compilers and Python.
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@li Over 70 example programs.
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@li Over 1000 pages of printable and on-line documentation.
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@li Simple-to-use, object-oriented API.
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@li Flexible event system.
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@li Graphics calls include lines, rounded rectangles, splines, polylines, etc.
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@li Constraint-based and sizer-based layouts.
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@li Print/preview and document/view architectures.
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@li Toolbar, notebook, tree control, advanced list control classes.
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@li PostScript generation under Unix, normal MS Windows printing on the PC.
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@li MDI (Multiple Document Interface) support.
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@li Can be used to create DLLs under Windows, dynamic libraries on Unix.
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@li Common dialogs for file browsing, printing, colour selection, etc.
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@li Under MS Windows, support for creating metafiles and copying them to the clipboard.
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@li An API for invoking help from applications.
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@li Ready-to-use HTML window (supporting a subset of HTML).
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@li Network support via a family of socket and protocol classes.
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@li Support for platform independent image processing.
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@li Built-in support for many file formats (BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, XPM, PNM, PCX).
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@li Includes Tex2RTF, to allow you to produce your own documentation
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in Windows Help, HTML and Word RTF formats.
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@section page_introduction_requirements wxWidgets requirements
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To make use of wxWidgets, you currently need one of the following setups.
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(a) MS-Windows:
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@li A 32-bit or 64-bit PC running MS Windows.
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@li A Windows compiler: MS Visual C++ (embedded Visual C++ for wxWinCE
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port), Borland C++, Watcom C++, Cygwin, MinGW, Metrowerks CodeWarrior,
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Digital Mars C++. See @c install.txt for details about compiler
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version supported.
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(b) Unix:
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@li Almost any C++ compiler, including GNU C++ and many Unix vendors
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compilers such as Sun CC, HP-UX aCC or SGI mipsPro.
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@li Almost any Unix workstation, and one of: GTK+ 2.4 or higher (GTK+ 1.2.10
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may still be supported but wxGTK1 port is not maintained any longer and lacks
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many features of wxGTK2), Motif 1.2 or higher or Lesstif. If using the wxX11
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port, no such widget set is required.
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(c) Mac OS/Mac OS X:
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@li A PowerPC or Intel Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
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@li The Apple Developer Tools (eg. GNU C++) or MetroWerks CodeWarrior (not
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actively supported)
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Under all platforms it's recommended to have large amounts of free hard disk
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space. The exact amount needed depends on the port, compiler and build
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configurations but to give an example, a debug build of the library may take up
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to 500MB.
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@section page_introduction_where Availability and location of wxWidgets
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wxWidgets is available by anonymous FTP and World Wide Web
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from ftp://biolpc22.york.ac.uk/pub and/or http://www.wxwidgets.org.
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You can also buy a CD-ROM using the form on the Web site.
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@section page_introduction_acknowledgements Acknowledgements
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The following is the list of the core, active developers of wxWidgets which keep
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it running and have provided an invaluable, extensive and high-quality amount of
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changes over the many of years of wxWidgets' life:
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@li Julian Smart
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@li Vadim Zeitlin
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@li Robert Roebling
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@li Robin Dunn
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@li Stefan Csomor
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@li Vaclav Slavik
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@li Paul Cornett
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@li Wlodzimierz `ABX' Skiba
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@li Chris Elliott
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@li David Elliott
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@li Kevin Hock
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@li Stefan Neis
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@li Michael Wetherell
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We would particularly like to thank the following peoples for their contributions
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to wxWidgets, and the many others who have been involved in the project over the years.
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Apologies for any unintentional omissions from this alphabetic list:
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Yiorgos Adamopoulos, Jamshid Afshar, Alejandro Aguilar-Sierra, AIAI,
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Patrick Albert, Karsten Ballueder, Mattia Barbon, Michael Bedward,
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Kai Bendorf, Yura Bidus, Keith Gary Boyce, Chris Breeze, Pete Britton,
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Ian Brown, C. Buckley, Marco Cavallini, Dmitri Chubraev, Robin Corbet, Cecil Coupe,
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Andrew Davison, Gilles Depeyrot, Neil Dudman, Hermann Dunkel, Jos van Eijndhoven,
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Tom Felici, Thomas Fettig, Matthew Flatt, Pasquale Foggia, Josep Fortiana, Todd Fries,
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Dominic Gallagher, Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia, Wolfram Gloger, Norbert Grotz,
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Stefan Gunter, Bill Hale, Patrick Halke, Stefan Hammes, Guillaume Helle,
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Harco de Hilster, Cord Hockemeyer, Markus Holzem, Olaf Klein, Leif Jensen,
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Bart Jourquin, Guilhem Lavaux, Ron Lee, Jan Lessner, Nicholas Liebmann,
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Torsten Liermann, Per Lindqvist, Francesco Montorsi, Thomas Runge, Tatu Männistö,
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Scott Maxwell, Thomas Myers, Oliver Niedung, Ryan Norton, Hernan Otero,
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Ian Perrigo, Timothy Peters, Giordano Pezzoli, Harri Pasanen, Thomaso Paoletti,
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Garrett Potts, Marcel Rasche, Dino Scaringella, Jobst Schmalenbach, Arthur Seaton,
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Paul Shirley, Stein Somers, Petr Smilauer, Neil Smith, Kari Systä, George Tasker,
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Arthur Tetzlaff-Deas, Jonathan Tonberg, Jyrki Tuomi, Janos Vegh, Andrea Venturoli,
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David Webster, Otto Wyss, Xiaokun Zhu, Edward Zimmermann.
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Many thanks also to AIAI for being willing to release the original version of
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wxWidgets into the public domain, and to our patient partners.
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`Graphplace', the basis for the wxGraphLayout library, is copyright Dr. Jos
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T.J. van Eijndhoven of Eindhoven University of Technology. The code has
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been used in wxGraphLayout (not in wxWidgets anymore) with his permission.
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We also acknowledge the author of XFIG, the excellent Unix drawing tool,
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from the source of which we have borrowed some spline drawing code.
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His copyright is included below.
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<em>
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XFig2.1 is copyright (c) 1985 by Supoj Sutanthavibul. Permission to
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use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
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documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided
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that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
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copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
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documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used in advertising or
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publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific,
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written prior permission. M.I.T. makes no representations about the
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suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided ``as is''
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without express or implied warranty.
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</em>
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*/
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