Developing graphical user front-end application to communicate with microcontroller system [closed] - c++

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I am able to establish communication between my microcontroller system and computer through serial port and TCP/IP, and able to send/ receive data.
I want to develop a graphical front-end application on my PC in which i can view some values/plot some graphs based on the data sent by my microcontroller.
I have some exposure to Visual Studio and MATLAB, and know C/C++ languages.
Which development environment should i use for the front-end development ??
Any tutorials/books/links regarding the same ??

Answer 1

This is actually an appendix to a comment, where I bragged about a small wrapper for charts, for creating XYPlots.
create a winform, rename it to XYPlot.
add a chart, and name it plotChart
add this as code..
now you can plot easily from your code ..
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting;
namespace Plot
{
public partial class XYPlot : Form
{
#region constructors
public string Title
{
get
{
return this.Text;
}
set
{
this.Text = "XYPlot : " + value;
}
}
//default, used for multiplots
public XYPlot()
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
}
private void InitializeChartStyles()
{
plotChart.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.IsMarginVisible = false;
plotChart.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
plotChart.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MinorGrid.Enabled = false;
plotChart.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
plotChart.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MinorGrid.Enabled = false;
}
//one-offs, used for simple plots of data
public XYPlot(string name, Series series)
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
this.Add(series);
this.Show();
}
public XYPlot(string name, DataPointCollection XYpoints)
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
this.Add(name, XYpoints);
this.Show();
}
public XYPlot(string name, List<Tuple<double, double>> XYpoints)
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
this.Add(name, XYpoints);
this.Show();
}
public XYPlot(string name, List<double> X, List<double> Y)
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
this.Add(name, X, Y);
this.Show();
}
public XYPlot(string name, List<double> Y, double xIncrements = 1.0, double xOffset = 0.0)
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeChartStyles();
this.Add(name, Y, xIncrements);
this.Show();
}
private void FormPlot_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Clear();
}
#endregion
#region getNextDefault
private List<Color> usedColors = new List<Color>();
private Color getNextDefaultColor()
{
switch(usedColors.Count)
{
case 1:
return Color.Red;
case 2:
return Color.Green;
case 3:
return Color.Black;
default:
return Color.Blue;
}
}
private Series newDefaultSeries(string Name)
{
var series = new System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Series
{
Name = Name,
BorderWidth = 2,
Color = getNextDefaultColor(),
IsVisibleInLegend = true,
IsXValueIndexed = false,
ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
};
usedColors.Add(series.Color);
return series;
}
#endregion
#region public methods
public void Clear()
{
plotChart.Series.Clear();
usedColors.Clear();
}
public Series getSeries(string Name)
{
return plotChart.Series[Name];
}
#region Add
public void Add(string Name, DataPointCollection XYpoints)
{
Series series = newDefaultSeries(Name);
plotChart.Series.Add(series);
//shallow copy
foreach (DataPoint p in XYpoints)
{
series.Points.Add(p);
}
//invalidates the old surfcace, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void Add(string Name, List<Tuple<double, double>> XYpoints)
{
Series series = newDefaultSeries(Name);
plotChart.Series.Add(series);
//shallow copy
foreach (Tuple<double, double> XY in XYpoints)
{
series.Points.AddXY(XY.Item1, XY.Item2);
}
//invalidates the old surfcace, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void Add(string Name, List<double> X, List<double> Y)
{
Series series = newDefaultSeries(Name);
plotChart.Series.Add(series);
if (X.Count != Y.Count)
throw new Exception("X and Y vectors must be of same length, otherwise I cannot plot them in an XY plot!");
//shallow copy
for (int i = 0; i < X.Count; i++)
{
series.Points.AddXY(X[i], Y[i]);
}
//invalidates the old surfcace, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void Add(string Name, List<double> Y, double xIncrements = 1.0, double xOffset = 0.0)
{
Series series = newDefaultSeries(Name);
plotChart.Series.Add(series);
//shallow copy
if (Y != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < Y.Count; i++)
{
double x = ((double)i) * xIncrements + xOffset;
series.Points.AddXY(x, Y[i]);
}
}
//invalidates the old surface, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void Add(System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Series series)
{
plotChart.Series.Add(series);
plotChart.Refresh();
}
#endregion
#region updateSeries
public void updateSeries(string Name, DataPointCollection XYpoints)
{
try
{
if (plotChart.Series[Name] == null)
Add(Name, XYpoints);
}
catch
{
Add(Name, XYpoints);
}
//shallow copy
foreach (DataPoint p in XYpoints)
{
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.Add(p);
}
//invalidates the old surfcace, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void updateSeries(string Name, List<Tuple<double, double>> XYpoints)
{
try
{
if (plotChart.Series[Name] == null)
Add(Name, XYpoints);
}
catch
{
Add(Name, XYpoints);
}
//shallow copy
foreach (Tuple<double, double> XY in XYpoints)
{
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.AddXY(XY.Item1, XY.Item2);
}
//invalidates the old surfcace, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void updateSeries(string Name, List<double> X, List<double> Y)
{
try
{
if (plotChart.Series[Name] == null)
Add(Name, X, Y);
}
catch
{
Add(Name, X, Y);
}
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.Clear();
if (X.Count != Y.Count)
throw new Exception("X and Y vectors must be of same length, otherwise I cannot plot them in an XY plot!");
//shallow copy
for (int i = 0; i < X.Count; i++)
{
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.AddXY(X[i], Y[i]);
}
//invalidates the old surface, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void updateSeries(string Name, List<double> Y, double xIncrements = 1.0, double xOffset = 0.0)
{
try
{
if (plotChart.Series[Name] == null)
Add(Name, Y, xIncrements, xOffset);
}
catch
{
Add(Name, Y, xIncrements, xOffset);
}
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.Clear();
//shallow copy
if (Y != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < Y.Count; i++)
{
double x = ((double)i) * xIncrements + xOffset;
plotChart.Series[Name].Points.AddXY(x, Y[i]);
}
}
//invalidates the old surface, and thus requests a redraw
plotChart.Refresh();
}
public void updateSeries(System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Series series)
{
try
{
if (plotChart.Series[series.Name] == null)
Add(series);
}
catch
{
Add(series);
}
plotChart.Series[series.Name] = series;
plotChart.Refresh();
}
#endregion
#endregion
}
}

Answer 2

As suggested by Joe, i decided to go ahead with Qt.
The following links are useful for installing and getting started with Qt on windows.
Installation:-
https://zahidhasan.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/how-to-install-qt-4-8-mingw-and-qt-creator-on-windows-8-1/
Reference:-
http://www-cs.ccny.cuny.edu/~wolberg/cs221/qt/books/C++-GUI-Programming-with-Qt-4-1st-ed.pdf
Regards,
Abhishek.