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| author | Fabien Costantini <fabien@onepost.net> | 2008-10-14 22:12:25 +0000 |
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| committer | Fabien Costantini <fabien@onepost.net> | 2008-10-14 22:12:25 +0000 |
| commit | 497afccb07164373e0de6639e754d7d691f1926f (patch) | |
| tree | 449d0b92ceb05f39617fe8fc2876d16eecde7460 /documentation/intro.html | |
| parent | e08fffdfe08bbc9320e39a15d162b6501abd4925 (diff) | |
Doxygen pdf man: First version added in documentation/fltk.pdf, old doc removed, images, dox files moved to a new src directory.
git-svn-id: file:///fltk/svn/fltk/branches/branch-1.3@6431 ea41ed52-d2ee-0310-a9c1-e6b18d33e121
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diff --git a/documentation/intro.html b/documentation/intro.html deleted file mode 100644 index 87756185c..000000000 --- a/documentation/intro.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,372 +0,0 @@ -<HTML> -<HEAD> - <TITLE>1 - Introduction to FLTK</TITLE> -</HEAD> -<BODY> - -<H1 ALIGN="RIGHT"><A NAME="intro">1 - Introduction to FLTK</A></H1> - -<P>The Fast Light Tool Kit ("FLTK", pronounced -"fulltick") is a cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit for -UNIX®/Linux® (X11), Microsoft® Windows®, and -MacOS® X. FLTK provides modern GUI functionality without the -bloat and supports 3D graphics via OpenGL® and its built-in -GLUT emulation. It was originally developed by Mr. Bill Spitzak -and is currently maintained by a small group of developers -across the world with a central repository in the US.</P> - -<H2>History of FLTK</H2> - -<P>It has always been Bill's belief that the GUI API of all -modern systems is much too high level. Toolkits (even FLTK) are -<I>not</I> what should be provided and documented as part of an -operating system. The system only has to provide arbitrary -shaped but featureless windows, a powerful set of graphics -drawing calls, and a simple <I>unalterable</I> method of -delivering events to the owners of the windows. NeXT (if you -ignored NextStep) provided this, but they chose to hide it and -tried to push their own baroque toolkit instead.</P> - -<P>Many of the ideas in FLTK were developed on a NeXT (but -<I>not</I> using NextStep) in 1987 in a C toolkit Bill called -"views". Here he came up with passing events downward -in the tree and having the handle routine return a value -indicating whether it used the event, and the table-driven menus. In -general he was trying to prove that complex UI ideas could be -entirely implemented in a user space toolkit, with no knowledge -or support by the system.</P> - -<P>After going to film school for a few years, Bill worked at -Sun Microsystems on the (doomed) NeWS project. Here he found an -even better and cleaner windowing system, and he reimplemented -"views" atop that. NeWS did have an unnecessarily -complex method of delivering events which hurt it. But the -designers did admit that perhaps the user could write just as -good of a button as they could, and officially exposed the lower -level interface.</P> - -<P>With the death of NeWS Bill realized that he would have to -live with X. The biggest problem with X is the "window -manager", which means that the toolkit can no longer -control the window borders or drag the window around.</P> - -<P>At Digital Domain Bill discovered another toolkit, -"Forms". Forms was similar to his work, but provided -many more widgets, since it was used in many real applications, -rather then as theoretical work. He decided to use Forms, except -he integrated his table-driven menus into it. Several very large -programs were created using this version of Forms.</P> - -<P>The need to switch to OpenGL and GLX, portability, and a -desire to use C++ subclassing required a rewrite of Forms. -This produced the first version of FLTK. The conversion to C++ -required so many changes it made it impossible to recompile any -Forms objects. Since it was incompatible anyway, Bill decided -to incorporate his older ideas as much as possible by -simplifying the lower level interface and the event passing -mechanisim.</P> - -<P>Bill received permission to release it for free on the -Internet, with the GNU general public license. Response from -Internet users indicated that the Linux market dwarfed the SGI -and high-speed GL market, so he rewrote it to use X for all -drawing, greatly speeding it up on these machines. That is the -version you have now.</P> - -<P>Digital Domain has since withdrawn support for FLTK. While -Bill is no longer able to actively develop it, he still -contributes to FLTK in his free time and is a part of the FLTK -development team.</P> - -<H2>Features</H2> - -<P>FLTK was designed to be statically linked. This was done by -splitting it into many small objects and designing it so that -functions that are not used do not have pointers to them in the -parts that are used, and thus do not get linked in. This allows -you to make an easy-to-install program or to modify FLTK to -the exact requirements of your application without worrying -about bloat. FLTK works fine as a shared library, though, and -is now included with several Linux distributions.</P> - -<P>Here are some of the core features unique to FLTK:</P> - -<UL> - - <LI>sizeof(Fl_Widget) == 64 to 92.</LI> - - <LI>The "core" (the "hello" program - compiled & linked with a static FLTK library using - gcc on a 486 and then stripped) is 114K.</LI> - - <LI>The FLUID program (which includes every widget) is - 538k.</LI> - - <LI>Written directly atop core libraries (Xlib, WIN32 or - Carbon) for maximum speed, and carefully optimized for - code size and performance.</LI> - - <LI>Precise low-level compatability between the X11, - WIN32 and MacOS versions - only about 10% of the code is - different.</LI> - - <LI>Interactive user interface builder program. Output is - human-readable and editable C++ source code.</LI> - - <LI>Support for overlay hardware, with emulation if none - is available.</LI> - - <LI>Very small & fast portable 2-D drawing library - to hide Xlib, WIN32, or QuickDraw.</LI> - - <LI>OpenGL/Mesa drawing area widget.</LI> - - <LI>Support for OpenGL overlay hardware on both X11 and - WIN32, with emulation if none is available.</LI> - - <LI>Text widgets with Emacs key bindings, X cut & - paste, and foreign letter compose!</LI> - - <LI>Compatibility header file for the GLUT library.</LI> - - <LI>Compatibility header file for the XForms library.</LI> - -</UL> - -<H2>Licensing</H2> - -<P>FLTK comes with complete free source code. FLTK is available -under the terms of the <A href="license.html">GNU Library -General Public License</A> with exceptions that allow for static -linking. Contrary to popular belief, it can be used in -commercial software - even Bill Gates could use it!</P> - -<H2>What Does "FLTK" Mean?</H2> - -<P>FLTK was originally designed to be compatible with the Forms -Library written for SGI machines. In that library all the -functions and structures started with "fl_". This -naming was extended to all new methods and widgets in the C++ -library, and this prefix was taken as the name of the library. -It is almost impossible to search for "FL" on the -Internet, due to the fact that it is also the abbreviation for -Florida. After much debating and searching for a new name for -the toolkit, which was already in use by several people, Bill -came up with "FLTK", including a bogus excuse that it -stands for "The Fast Light Toolkit".</P> - -<H2>Building and Installing FLTK Under UNIX and MacOS X</H2> - -<P>In most cases you can just type "make". This will -run configure with the default of no options and then compile -everything.</P> - -<P>FLTK uses GNU autoconf to configure itself for your UNIX -platform. The main things that the configure script will look -for are the X11 and OpenGL (or Mesa) header and library files. -If these cannot be found in the standard include/library -locations you'll need to define the <tt>CFLAGS</tt>, -<tt>CXXFLAGS</tt>, and <tt>LDFLAGS</tt> environment variables. -For the Bourne and Korn shells you'd use:</P> - -<UL><PRE> -CFLAGS=-I<I>includedir</I>; export CFLAGS -CXXFLAGS=-I<I>includedir</I>; export CXXFLAGS -LDFLAGS=-L<I>libdir</I>; export LDFLAGS -</PRE></UL> - -<P>For C shell and tcsh, use:</P> - -<UL><PRE> -setenv CFLAGS "-I<I>includedir</I>" -setenv CXXFLAGS "-I<I>includedir</I>" -setenv LDFLAGS "-L<I>libdir</I>" -</PRE></UL> - -<P>By default configure will look for a C++ compiler named -<tt>CC</tt>, <tt>c++</tt>, <tt>g++</tt>, or <tt>gcc</tt> in that -order. To use another compiler you need to set the <tt>CXX</tt> -environment variable:</P> - -<UL><PRE> -CXX=xlC; export CXX -setenv CXX "xlC" -</PRE></UL> - -<P>The <tt>CC</tt> environment variable can also be used to -override the default C compiler (<tt>cc</tt> or <tt>gcc</tt>), -which is used for a few FLTK source files.</P> - -<P>You can run configure yourself to get the exact setup you -need. Type "./configure <options>", where -options are:</P> - -<DL> - - <DT>--enable-cygwin</DT> - <DD>Enable the Cygwin libraries under WIN32</DD> - - <DT>--enable-debug</DT> - <DD>Enable debugging code & symbols</DD> - - <DT>--disable-gl</DT> - <DD>Disable OpenGL support</DD> - - <DT>--enable-shared</DT> - <DD>Enable generation of shared libraries</DD> - - <DT>--enable-threads</DT> - <DD>Enable multithreading support</DD> - - <DT>--enable-xdbe</DT> - <DD>Enable the X double-buffer extension</DD> - - <DT>--enable-xft</DT> - <DD>Enable the Xft library for anti-aliased fonts under X11</DD> - - <DT>--bindir=/path</DT> - <DD>Set the location for executables [default = $prefix/bin]</DD> - - <DT>--datadir=/path</DT> - <DD>Set the location for data files. [default = $prefix/share]</DD> - - <DT>--libdir=/path</DT> - <DD>Set the location for libraries [default = $prefix/lib]</DD> - - <DT>--includedir=/path</DT> - <DD>Set the location for include files. [default = $prefix/include]</DD> - - <DT>--mandir=/path</DT> - <DD>Set the location for man pages. [default = $prefix/man]</DD> - - <DT>--prefix=/dir</DT> - <DD>Set the directory prefix for files [default = /usr/local]</DD> - -</DL> - -<P>When the configure script is done you can just run the -"make" command. This will build the library, FLUID -tool, and all of the test programs.</P> - -<P>To install the library, become root and type "make -install". This will copy the "fluid" executable -to "bindir", the header files to -"includedir", and the library files to -"libdir".</P> - -<H2>Building FLTK Under Microsoft Windows</H2> - -<P>There are three ways to build FLTK under Microsoft Windows. -The first is to use the Visual C++ 5.0 project files under the -"visualc" directory. Just open (or double-click on) -the "fltk.dsw" file to get the whole shebang.</P> - -<P>The second method is to use the <TT>configure</TT> script -included with the FLTK software; this has only been tested with -the CygWin tools:</P> - -<UL><PRE> -sh configure --prefix=C:/FLTK -make -</PRE></UL> - -<P>The final method is to use a GNU-based development tool with -the files in the "makefiles" directory. To build -using one of these tools simply copy the appropriate -makeinclude and config files to the main directory and do a -make:</P> - -<UL><PRE> -copy makefiles\Makefile.<env> Makefile -make -</PRE></UL> - -<H3>Using the Visual C++ DLL Library</H3> - -<P>The "fltkdll.dsp" project file builds a DLL-version -of the FLTK library. Because of name mangling differences -between PC compilers (even between different versions of Visual -C++!) you can only use the DLL that is generated with the same -version compiler that you built it with.</P> - -<P>When compiling an application or DLL that uses the FLTK DLL, -you will need to define the <tt>FL_DLL</tt> preprocessor symbol -to get the correct linkage commands embedded within the FLTK -header files.</P> - -<H2>Building FLTK Under OS/2</H2> - -<P>The current OS/2 build requires XFree86 for OS/2 to work. A -native Presentation Manager version has not been implemented -yet (volunteers are welcome!).</P> - -<p>The current set of Makefiles/configuration failes assumes that -EMX 0.9d and libExt -(from <A HREF="http://posix2.sourceforge.net">posix2.sourceforge.net</A>) -is installed. - -<P>To build the XFree86 version of FLTK for OS/2, copy the appropriate -makeinclude and config files to the main directory and do a make: </P> - -<UL><PRE> -copy makefiles\Makefile.os2x Makefile -make -</PRE></UL> - -<H2>Internet Resources</H2> - -<P>FLTK is available on the 'net in a bunch of locations:</P> - -<DL> - - <DT>WWW - <DD><A href="http://www.fltk.org/">http://www.fltk.org/</A> - <DD><A href="http://www.fltk.org/str.php">http://www.fltk.org/str.php</A> - [for reporting bugs] - <DD><A href="http://www.fltk.org/software.php">http://www.fltk.org/software.php</A> - [source code] - - <DT>FTP - <DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.fltk.org/pub/fltk">California, USA (ftp.fltk.org)</A> - <DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp2.fltk.org/pub/fltk">Maryland, USA (ftp2.fltk.org)</A> - <DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/ftp.fltk.org/pub/fltk">Espoo, Finland (ftp.funet.fi)</A> - <DD><A HREF="ftp://linux.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/pub/linux/mirrors/misc/fltk">Germany (linux.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de)</A> - <DD><A HREF="ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/hci/fltk">Austria (gd.tuwien.ac.at)</A> - - <DT>EMail</DT> - <DD><A href="mailto:fltk@fltk.org">fltk@fltk.org</A> [see - instructions below] - <DD><A href="mailto:fltk-bugs@fltk.org">fltk-bugs@fltk.org</A> [for - reporting bugs] - - <DT>NNTP Newsgroups</DT> - <DD>news.easysw.com</DD> - -</DL> - -<P>To send a message to the FLTK mailing list -("fltk@fltk.org") you must first join the list. -Non-member submissions are blocked to avoid problems with -unsolicited email.</P> - -<P>To join the FLTK mailing list, send a message to -"majordomo@fltk.org" with "subscribe fltk" -in the message body. A digest of this list is available by -subscribing to the "fltk-digest" mailing list.</P> - -<H2>Reporting Bugs</H2> - -<P>To report a bug in FLTK, send an email to -"fltk-bugs@fltk.org". Please include the FLTK version, -operating system & version, and compiler that you are using -when describing the bug or problem. We will be unable to provide -any kind of help without that basic information.</P> - -<P>Bugs can also be reported to the "fltk.bugs" newsgroup or on the -SourceForge bug tracker pages.</P> - -<P>For general support and questions, please use the FLTK mailing list -at "fltk@fltk.org" or one of the newsgroups.</P> - -</BODY> -</HTML> |