Introduction
wxWidgets is a C++ library for creating cross-platform applications. It enables developers to create GUI code to compile and run on several computer platforms such as Windows, OS X, Linux and UNIX with minimal or no code changes.wxWidgets is free and open source software which satisfies those who wish to produce for GPL and proprietary software without license costs [wxW98]. On the other hand, Qt is available for free under LGPLv3 license but has some limitations for commercial use unless you pay the license fee [Qt17].
wxWidgets uses Native platform , therefore GUI has more native look and feel [wxW12]. Qt extends the C++ language but wxWidgets does not extend the C++ language which is less surprising to developers expecting standard C++.
wxWidgets produces small and efficient binary applications. Therefore, it is suitable for embedded systems. In term of library size, Qt library is \(\approx 200\) MB where wxWidgets library is \(\approx 30\) MB.
wxWidgets not only works for C++, but also has bindings for python, perl, php, java, lua, lisp, erlang, eiffel, C# (.NET), BASIC, ruby and even javascript [wxW15a]. wxWidgets is one of the most complete and mature GUI toolkits. There are a lot of utility classes also.
wxWidgets is used by a huge range of organisations and individuals all over the world. Some of the better-known organisations who have used wxWidgets include NASA, AMD, Xerox, and Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF). wxWidgets applications that you may be familiar with include AVG AntiVirus, Audacity, Filezilla, Code::Blocks, CodeLite.
