I've been tasked with writing an application that conditionally compiles to a Win32 GUI application under Windows, or a console application under Linux.
My biggest stumbling block so far is just figuring out how to setup this project. I typically work in Visual Studio 2012 and when creating a new C++ Win32 project have the choice between a console app and a GUI app. I feel like this is setting some project properties and stuff related to the compiler that's going to make it difficult to compile the same project under Linux and have it generate a console application.
The conditional compilation stuff I'm not terribly concerned about, I'm just trying to figure out if I should be compiling this stuff through the command line on Windows rather than using Visual Studio, and how I would be setting the target application to end up as a GUI or console app when doing this.
Hopefully I've explained myself clearly, I think it's obvious I'm pretty lost. Thanks in advance for any help.
This seems like one of those situations where you'd be better served by making a library containing the bulk of the functionality, then two or three frontends to that library to expose its functionality as a console app or GUI program.
No sense in trying to bash a bunch of Win32 GUI stuff into what is otherwise a console app project.
I would recommend using a cross-platform toolkit such as wxWidgets or Qt. That way you are not tied to one specific platform architecture. Those frameworks also have extensive documentation about how to set up a project correctly with a variety of compilers/development environments.
This is something that you can, at least on the windows side, use preprocessor definitions for the project to define both. Discussed here!
C++ compiling on Windows and Linux: ifdef switch
and stylize your code sections as:
#ifdef WIN32 // Windows system specific
#include <windows.h>
#else // Unix based system specific
#include <sys/time.h>
#endif
Continue to separate all of your cross platform code this way. Don't forget to add WIN32 to your project properties under Properties --> Configuration Properties --> C/C++ --> Preprocessor
Related
I'm trying to create a simple GUI program that stays on top and shows an image plus few buttons with variable opacity for the whole window to use like onion skin over other programs.
after installing Code::Blocks I'm facing lots of choices for the project type and I have no idea which one I should choice to be able to build for both windows and macOS platforms.
I'm trying to make it a single file program or contain everything in the same folder, without the need for anything to be installed, that's why I've chosen C++ after reading about other possible solutions, I'll appreciate any information about that topic as well.
On Windows you would normally use the Win32 GUI project option, which will use the WinAPI and thus only be compatible with Windows. If you want to support both Windows and MacOSX with the same code base you need to use a platform independent GUI framework such as QT or GTK+.
Currently I'm working on a simple game engine project. I would like it to be independent from the platform, so for started I've taken only classical Windows Desktop application and Metro Style app.
From this picture:
Windows APIs
We can see that the C/C++ blocks are common for both parts. In other words, I would like to easily switch between platform configurations. I've created simple WinAPI static library that you can easily include in the project, as well as DirectX game-engine and it works perfectly. However, I'm having issues to do the same with WinRT (used in Metro Style apps).
Is it possible to have one Visual Studio project that can use WinAPI or WinRT? It would be perfect if I could have like one single entry point for a game and just switch underlying APIs.
No. A single VS project that either generates a classic win32 exe and a WinRT (nowadays Universal) applications is not possible.
In theory they could have made it possible, like you can have a single project that generates a console application or gui application. The difference between the two boils down to one (or two) flags.
The difference between a classic exe and a WinRT app is quite big: There are manifests and packaging and special sauce signing not to mention the resources (icons, etc) are specified differently.
In the Visual studio UI this is manifested by a different set of property pages, besides the common core of compiler + linker ones of course.
The other reason is one of strategy. Microsoft wants you to move forward and embrace the WinRT API. That is the API set that works across all Windows devices (if you ignore the Win7 elephant in the room). Supporting a dual mode will send the wrong signal to developers.
As a side note that the very windows headers (windows.h) are annotated by API family. CreateNamedPipe is #ifdef out in a WinRT application, or for example there is CreateFile for classic apps and CreateFile2 for modern apps.
I am new (relatively) to C++ and to SO.
Having stretched the creativity of console applications to the limit, my very rabid mind wants to know how to code GUIs now. I did some research, decided to use GTK rather than Qt because of having freedom of choice, there being no strings attached and something about slow internet and having to download some 0.6GB were I to go with Qt.
It has been a brutal 48 hours trying to build 'Hello World' on Gtk. This is me throwing a tantrum. I'm using Visual Studio 2010. Perhaps this is the source of all my woes. It seems Gtk is meant for C and not C++. After solving issues with header files includes and a certain notorious glibconfig.h missing (which I downloaded from the internet only to find, to my horror,that it is supposed to be a generated file), the compiler threw syntax errors,especially in one gatomic.h.
I suspect 10 errors will come up for every one I manage to solve. This is where you come in. Do you use Gtk to develop c++? If not, why so? What would you recommend instead? Do you use Gtk on windows? How is that possible? Please give details.
Is it possible to make cross-platform apps that use C++ code and a Python/VB GUI?
Your answer will be sincerely appreciated.
First off, a general note: Gtk being mainly developed as a toolkit for Gnome, I think it is fair to say that the main focus is high quality on Linux while other platforms are somewhat second-class citizens. This is probably most visible by looking at the integration with the native look and feel of Windows and MacOS. If you are looking for a toolkit which behaves equally well on all major platforms, I'd recommend you reconsidered Qt.
As far as your more specific questions are concerned:
C/C++
Gtk is written in C, and consequently has a C API. If you are looking for a C++ API, look at the Gtkmm bindings. Note that you can also use the C API in a C++ application.
glibconfig.h
I don't know whether you tried compiling Gtk yourself, but the easiest way to get Gtk3 for windows is by downloading the precompiled all-in-one bundle from http://www.gtk.org/download/win32.php (which includes the glibconfig.h you are missing).
When and how to use Gtk and with what language
As pointed out above, the primary users oft Gtk are people who develop applications for the Gnome desktop environment. Most cross-platform applications nowadays however use Qt since the quality on Windows and MacOS is higher compared to Gtk on those platforms.
Concerning what langauge to use, a strength of Gtk is that there exists bindings for many languages (including C++ and Python), so you are certainly not confined to C.
When developing with C++, something that I personally like about Gtkmm is that it uses the standard library, as opposed to Qt which has it's own implementations for data structures etc (the reason being that Qt predates the times when the STL was generally available and usable on all main platforms).
How to use Gtk: contrary to Qt which has the excellent Qt Creator, Gtk is somewhat lacking a specifically designed IDE for easy development. The closes you'll get is using Glade for interface design and a text editor or IDE of your choice for the coding, but that choice will differ depending on the platform you are on. Clearly, as you probably noticed, integrating Gtk into the environment of choice usually requires some work (and also some more technical knowledge). So again, if you are looking for an easy to set-up and use environment for developing GUI applications, I'd just go with Qt and Qt Creator.
Cross-Platform apps
First off, Visual Basic is not cross-platform. But generally speaking, there are plenty of possibilities for doing cross-application development, using various languages.
I've had to get a gtk3 project working on windows a few months ago, when gtk3 just came out for windows. I've had problems compiling it under Visual Studio as well, and posted a question here, specifically this one.
Here's how I got it working on windows:
Download the all-in-one bundle for Windows from gtk.org
Install, etc, set up include/link dirs within the project. (personally, I dumped gtk's folders in the project folder, pointed at "include" as an include dir and "lib" as a link dir, then proceeded to move any files/folders the compiler cannot find around to the root of "include" )
If not set up automatically, add include and link dirs as necessary until the compiler finds all the files.
If using MinGW to compile, it will succeed at that point.
If using Visual Studio, you have to modify gtk headers as described in the gtk mailing list:
In gutils.h lines 82 and 122, and in gstring.h line 129, change
"static inline" to "static __inline".
Blockquote
Note that the modification does not impact MinGW's ability to compile.
I have successfully compiled my gtk3 project on both windows (with either Visual Studio or Code::Blocks) and linux without writing platform-specific code that way. Just don't forget to include the required runtime dlls with the program when you ship it.
I have a project that requires writing a code for small executable file. I used visual C++ express 2010 IDE to create this file. After I finished writing the code, I tried to copy it to a couple of different PCs. It gives me an error message every time I clicking on this file to execute it. The message states that I have to install (.NET framework). I watched a couple videos on YouTube explaining how overcome this problem by changing the runtime library from multi-threaded Debug DLL (/MDd) to multi-threaded Debug (/Mtd). However; the IDE can’t debug the C++ code because when I create my project by using CLR template!
Is there any way to solve this problem? Can I create a similar program that not requires any further downloading once I using on different PC?
Is learning a different language like JAVA or C# will help creating small programs (like my program) that run on most Window platform machine?
Just use Qt - it runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, support for Android and iOS is scheduled for this year, plus it supports embedded platforms and some of the more obscure mobile platforms. Also, support for Windows RT was just kickstarted. A complete library with tons of functionality, good documentation and lots of educational resources. It provides tons of tools, from implicitly shared containers through threading, signals and slots, 2D and 3D graphics, widgets, multimedia, sensors... and whatnot...
You can even develop commercial applications under the LGPL license.
Also comes with a pretty good IDE - Qt Creator.
You can develop standard C++ applications or use QML, which is a JavaScript like language for markup and scripting, which is used to build applications from C++ implemented components. You can also extend QML. It is much faster to develop with QML and you still get the advantages of platform native binary under the hood.
Note that you will still need to either ship a few DLLs with your application. Unless of course you use a static build, which requires you to either have your application open source, or purchase a commercial license... which doesn't come cheap...
But still, a few MB of DLLs are far better than the entire .NET framework. A static build will produce executables about 8-9 MB with no external dependencies.
Stick with the C++ standard, avoid Microsoft extensions (managed code), and call only POSIX functions of your OS, then you should be able to write portable programs.
You seem to have created a Managed C++ Project. Instead create an empty Win32 C++ project and then add in your .cpp/.h files. This will limit you to the default libraries available on all PCs with the C++ runtime. If you want to remove that dependency too then statically compile in the runtime using the /MT option. Details # http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2kzt1wy3(v=vs.71).aspx
As you move ahead you would need to be conscious of what libraries you take dependencies on and what versions of the OS are those libraries available on or if you need to package them with your bits.
Both Java and C# will help making portable programs. Usually, people will have to install runtime environments for executables written in these two languages, however. These days, C++ is more portable than ever. You can easily run C++ executables in your browser:
https://github.com/kripken/emscripten
http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
This makes many of the reasons why Java and C# came about irrelevant.
Open standards like OpenGL also make portable GUI programming easier than ever. Try Qt, if you want to write a simple GUI in C++.
Note: It is possible to run C++ program in any computer without installing anything if you haven't use .NET framework. In your case, there can be two reasons to trigger error in target computer.
New computer doesn't have required run-time assembles.
New computer doesn't have required .NET framework installed.
..........................................
So what to do:
Before start your program you have to design weather are you going to use .NET framework support or not. If you use .NET framework when you develop your program, then you much install same or higher .NET framework in target computer.
If you no need to use .NET component then your target computer should only containing run-time assemblies.
How to get rid of .net framework
right click on the project in solution -> properties -> General -> Common language run time support -> select "No common language run time support".
..........................................
Then what you need is only relevant run-time assemblies be in target computer.
How can run-time assemblies be in new computer:
There are two ways:
Install suitable C++ disputable environment in target computer(if you use VS2008 SP1, C++ RD package should be this. Please consider the solution build architecture also (32 bit/64 bit) before download ).
Deploy run-time assemblies with your solution package. (I like this because user no need to install any third party components)
..........................................
How Deploy assemblies with my project:
for this your all DLL, LIB, EXE should use same run time version.(if not, you face troubling to redirect assemblies by 'manifest' files ).
How to check the run-time version.
open DLL,EXE by visual studio (open->file) -> expand RT_MANIFEST-> double click the file under it ->then assembly dependency details will open. -> copy the data in right column and paste to note pad.
You will see this kind of line there. and ther is the version run-time assemblies your specific DLL or EXE use.
assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86".....
After identifying the version of run-time assemblies follow this tutorial and try to run in fresh installed computer.
At last: If you think this bla.. bla.. is so complex and your program is very simple, then you can consider about "run time assemblies statically linking" (try Google). But personally I don't like this method.
good luck!
I love that Qt is cross-platform but I want to make an application that will call into some Windows specific .dll's. Kinda like Google Chrome does with the glass on Windows Vista/7 (I know Chrome isn't written using the Qt framework just thought it was a good example).
How can I do this in Qt? Is it feasible?
Yes, this is no problem. You just go ahead and do it! Qt itself is just a DLL you call into, it just happens to be the same across different platforms. Just link against the DLLs you like and call them.
There is nothing wrong with using Qt to make a Windows-only application if you like.
As long as you have the relevant Windows SDK headers to hand, and can link with the appropriate libs, then it is easy to mix and match Qt and Win32 code. I use Qt Creator for C++ development which ships with MinGW and includes all the most common Win32 SDK headers and libs. You can even wrap the Windows specific parts of your code with suitable #ifdefs in case you ever come to build for a different platform, e.g.:
#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
#include <windows.h>
void someWindowsSpecificFunc()
{
...
}
#endif // Q_OS_WIN
You can of course call WinAPI functions directly from your Qt code, then it's better to include qt_windows.h not windows.h.
If you just want to add the cool new Windows 7 features to your application then you are better of using a dedicated Qt add-on. There is one called Q7Goodies.
Fearlessly go ahead an write your Win-specific app. You can utilize all the Windows DLLs you want. In this sense, Qt has no limitations. You will still be gaining the advantages of those nifty Qt layout components and customizable skinning. In terms of skinning there is no better framework that Qt. Your users will love all the resizable dialogs you provide them with.