i have been a C# developer for a long-time now so i have huge experience with Winforms. i wanted to start VC++ development so that i can write native apps.
I know C++ very well. The problem is i have made test projects in VS2010, Win32 Application, MFC Applications and all, it doesn't provide a Visual Designer like there is for VC# Winforms and VC++ Winforms as well. i want to have a Visual designer for Native App Development like for Win32 Apps.
Is it possible?
How to do it?
There is a dialog designer for MFC. Provided you setup your project correctly, you can use the designer to layout your MFC windows. See this answer for details.
For other libraries, there are other options, as well. For example, Qt Creator allows you to visually design Qt windows via Qt Designer.
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I'm developing a big application in Qt. There are some classes/components that do not offer the performance I need, so I want to use a native solution.
I installed Visual Studio 2010 with MFC, and I actually know the location of the library with open source.
How can I link my Qt app to MFC and use some of its classes?
I would like to create a windows forms application in C++, but I don't want to use .NET framework.
I also don't want to code everything from scratch. I'd like to have a toolbox such as the one in Visual Studio. Could you recommend some editor/compiler for this task?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
You might want to look up MFC or the Qt framework. both have a nice GUI editor and integrate with visual studio (MFC actually comes with visual studio)
Winforms is a strictly .NET thing so whatever you do, it won't be Winforms.
in the C++ world many frameworks to develop GUI layer exist,and if your application must be cross platform the popular choice could be wxWidgets or Qt,and I suggest you Qt.
If you are Pro Microsoft you have WTL and MFC and I suggest you WTL.
Can I develop full fledged win32 app using VC++ express (i.e access to all the win32 APIs). I do't want to use .net, but if it works with .net then its a bonus. I do have Visual studio DVD but I do not want to install ton of crap just to program in C++.
I just want to use windows APIs for networking, filesystem, threads, etc. I'll most probably use GUI Libraries like TK or WX.
Will Mingw allow me to use all of the Win32 APIs.
VC++ Express has access to all of the Windows API. It does not come with a framework for GUI development, but you can easily add a third party package such as Qt or wx, or work directly with the API if you prefer.
Under Create New Project there's a "Win32" section with "Win32 Project" listed as one of the options.
So as the Express edition is a fully featured IDE (apart from not supporting plugins) then you should be able to build a "fully fledged win32 app".
I know how to program in C++ making console programs, but now I want to code programs with interfaces for Windows. MS VS 2010 makes things easy when coding C++ Windows applications with its drag & drop design system. (.net Framework) However, Visual Studio seems to use C++/CLI, which I'm unfamiliar with.
Is there for an IDE which only uses C++? Is there any good IDE with an easy to use GUI designer, or can I tweak VS 2010 to not to use C++/CLI?
Visual C++ is perfectly happy to not use C++/CLI syntax, in fact it works even better without it.
Just set "Use of .NET Framework (/clr)" setting in your project options to "No". Or use the "Win32 Application" wizard when creating your project to begin with.
The "native" version of the Forms Designer is called the Dialog Editor and it works much the same way -- you can select textboxes and buttons and things from a palette and drag where you want them in your window.
The best RAD C++ tool, which also happens to accept unmanaged C++ is "CodeGear C++ Builder"
How about Qt Creator - IDE for Qt? http://www.qt.io/ide/
I'm learning C++, and know a little bit of Visual Basic and an Delphi.
But I want to know, is there some program like Delphi, but for C++. Something where you can drag a button to a form, double click it, the like in Delphi and VB: opens a code editor and you edit the code of the button, but with a similar code of C++?
I'm using Windows Vista.
Yes, if you use MFC within Visual Studio.
MFC is Visual Studio's C++ class library for writing Windows programs, and for an MFC form Visual Studio behaves exactly as you describe.
As of Visual Studio 2008 with an upgrade pack you can create Office 2007 style applications, and Visual Studio style applications, using MFC.
There used to be "C++ Builder", a C++ version of Delphi, I don't know if this product is still being developed or not.
UPDATE: to summarize information from the comments, C++ Builder is actively developed and the product page is http://www.embarcadero.com/products/cbuilder/
You can have the following IDEs with GUI designers for free;
Visual Studio 2008 express from Microsoft
Qt Creator from Nokia
Eclipse with Qt plugin from community :)
C++ Builder from Embarcadero
(previously CodeGear, previously
Borland)
Have fun with C++!
There are other packages besides MFC that do GUI stuff, but I don't think they plug-in to Visual Studio. I must confess, I have never been a fan of MFC. I find it ugly and painful, so I can't really recommend it.
Qt has a designer, as does GTK. I haven't used the Qt designer, but the GTK one works well. It can be found here: http://glade.gnome.org/ You can get glade for Windows here: http://gladewin32.sourceforge.net/
It can be hassle to set these up, though.
Honestly, while I like C++ a lot, writing GUIs for Windows is not where it excels. I would recommend that you look at C# instead. You can still interface with C++ if you need to, but it makes writing Windows GUIs so much nicer.