AppendixF.wxWidgets Application Showcase

Appendix F. wxWidgets Application Showcase

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of applications using wxWidgets. All of the applications in this selection are mature, usable programs that are actively developed and supported. See also the "Tools" section in Appendix E, which also contains good examples of wxWidgets applications. In addition, there are some small but complete applications in the demos directory of the wxWidgets distribution, including a card game, a poetry viewer, a cellular automaton toy, and a fractal mountain generator.

AOL Communicator is a convenient way for AOL members to manage their email, address book, and much more. Communicator integrates email (including multiple email addresses), spam filtering, AIM instant messaging, and news in one interface. It's available for Windows and Mac OS X from http://communicator.aol.com.

Audacity is a free audio editor that can record and play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode, and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (see Figure F-1) from http://audacity.sourceforge.net.

Figure F-1. Audacity running on MacOS X

AVG Antivirus is a comprehensive antivirus program. The unique combination of detection methods (heuristic analysis, generic detection, scanning, and integrity checking) ensures maximum protection on multiple levels. There are versions for workstations, networks, email servers, and file servers. It's available for Windows and Linux from http://www.grisoft.com.

BitWise IM is an instant messenger with text, file transfer/sharing, whiteboard, and voice capability. All data sent between clients is automatically encrypted for privacy. The cross-platform interoperability of all features is unmatched by any other instant messenger. A free Personal and a paid Professional version are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (see Figure F-2) from http://www.bitwiseim.com.

Figure F-2. BitWise on Mac OS X

Chess Commander is a chess game featuring legal move display, realistic voices, an orchestral soundtrack, and board annotation. Play chess against the computer as well as against email and network opponents with one interface. It's available for Windows (see Figure F-3) from http://www.chesscommander.com.

Figure F-3. Chess Commander

Cn3D is an application for viewing 3D structures from the National Center for Biotechnology Information's Entrez retrieval service. Cn3D runs on Windows (see Figure F-4), Mac, and Unix. Cn3D simultaneously displays structure, sequence, and alignment. It's available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/CN3D/cn3d.shtml.

Figure F-4. Cn3D

Documancer is a programmer's documentation reader for Unix and Windows that has very fast full-text searching. It is written in wxPython using Mozilla as the rendering engine. It's available for Windows and Linux from http://documancer.sourceforge.net.

EarthVision is software for 3D model building and visualization that makes accurate well positioning, reservoir characterization, and environmental analysis easy. EarthVision's multitude of visualization tools, including integrated seismic display and interactive well design, improve and simplify quality control, well planning, and communication to management, investors, partners, and the diverse members of the asset team. It's available for Windows and Linux from http://www.dgi.com/earthvision.

Forte Agent is the top-rated UseNet newsreader on the Internet and is also a POP email client. Agent provides basic newsreader functionality, along with threaded discussions, off-line newsgroup datastore, automatic multi-part binary combining, yEnc encoding and decoding, kill and watch lists, cross-post management, and more. It's available for Windows from http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php.

KICAD is an open source (GPL) application for designing electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork. Figure F-5 shows 2D and 3D views of different KICAD designs. It's available for Windows and Linux from http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad.

Figure F-5. KICAD

Kirix Strata is a dynamic database application for Windows (see Figure F-6) and Linux. With Strata, users can integrate data from diverse systems, create instant calculations across millions of records, and manipulate data interactively in a flexible graphical environment. Kirix Strata won the LinuxWorld 2005 Product Excellence Award for Best Desktop/Productivity/ Business Application. It's available from http://www.kirix.com.

Figure F-6. KIRIX Strata

Mahogany Mail is an open source mail and news client, focusing on IMAP4 support. Everything within Mahogany is configurable, and Mahogany also includes Python scripting, built-in filters, multiple identities, calendars, a powerful address book, Palm synchronization, fax capability, and much more. It's available for Windows, Linux (see Figure F-7), and Mac OS X from http://mahogany.sourceforge.net.

Figure F-7. Mahogany on Linux

Mojoworld is a 3D world generator, with a procedural fractal engine that creates pixel-level detail at any resolution, distance, or field of view. It's available for Windows and Mac OS X from http://www.pandromeda.com.

pgAdmin III is a powerful administration and development platform for the PostgreSQL database, free for any use. The graphical interface supports all PostgreSQL features and makes administration easy. pgAdmin also includes a query builder, an SQL editor, a server-side code editor, and much more. It's available for Windows and Linux from http://www.pgadmin.org.

SILO is a production-quality commercial 3D modeling application, employing advanced polygonal modeling tools and integrated subdivision surfaces. Silo is being used for video games, architectural design, film animation, and more. It's available for Windows and Mac OS X from http://nevercenter.com.

Tortoise CVS is a CVS version control interface that integrates with Windows Explorer. It enables direct check out, update, commit, and diffs by right-clicking on files and folders within Explorer. It shows a file's state on top of the normal icons within Explorer. It even works from within the File Open dialog. It's available for Windows from http://www.tortoisecvs.org.

Transcribe! is an assistant for people who sometimes want to work out a piece of music from a recording in order to write it out or play it themselves, or both. Transcribe! is not an editor. It reads, plays, and records audio files but does not modify them. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X (see Figure F-8) from http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html.

Figure F-8. Transcribe! running on Mac OS X

VLC (VideoLAN client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MP3, and OGG) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X from http://www.videolan.org/vlc.

Writer's Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple-to-use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay. It's available for Windows (see Figure F-9), Linux, and Mac OS X (beta) from http://www.writerscafe.co.uk.

Figure F-9. Writer's Café

xCHM is a viewer for chm files (Microsoft Compiled HTML Help Files). It can show the contents tree if one is available; print the displayed page; change fonts, faces, and size; work with bookmarks; do the usual history stunts (forward, back, home); and search for text in the whole book. wxHtmlWindow is used to render the HTML. It's available for Linux (see Figure F-10) and Mac OS X from http://xchm.sourceforge.net.

Figure F-10. xCHM running on Linux