I've got my interpreter up and running - quite bug-free and stable for now - now I want to add some visual options to my language to play around.
What is a good GUI library easy to use and mainly easy to embed and "link" to my programming language?
What general rules do I have to follow?
I'm currently on XP with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
Depends on your language and it's properties. For example, if you can only expose C-style functions, then the default WinAPI supports this style. If you can do the whole C++ classes malarky, then you could do MFC, GDI+, WIC, etc.
Ultimately, if you want something easy to embed, it's simpler to write good embedding code than worry about what you're going to embed.
In various posts I have seen regarding UI Libraries QT and WxWidgets seem to be popular.
Look here for a list of features
Check out the fast light toolkit (FLTK) at http://fltk.org. From that website:
FLTK (pronounced "fulltick") is a cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit for UNIX®/Linux® (X11), Microsoft® Windows®, and MacOS® X. FLTK provides modern GUI functionality without the bloat and supports 3D graphics via OpenGL® and its built-in GLUT emulation.
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Can we create C++ GUI applications with Visual Studio or do we need QT like cross platform softwares?
(By the way, I am assuming if I create a GUI with C++ it would be a cross platform application because as far as I know C++ is a cross platform language)
For some of you maybe this is a very obvious question but I couldn't figure out.
The C++ language is cross-platform, but its standard libraries don't provide anything specifically for any GUI development. For that, you need a C++ GUI framework/library. Qt happens to provide just that and it's also cross-platform.
So no, without the use of some cross-platform GUI framework, your application not only won't be cross platform, it simply won't have a GUI at all, since C++ standard libraries don't provide this functionality.
If you use one of the GUI frameworks available only for Windows, like MFC or Windows Runtime, you're not cross-platform.
There are no GUI libraries built directly into c++. Therefore, any GUI you built using c++ would not be cross-platform. There are a couple GUI libraries that come with Visual Studio - MFC and ATL are both fairly common. Neither are cross-platform, however. That doesn't stop you from using some other GUI framework, of course, if you include it. There are plenty to choose from, including ones that are cross-platform.
Just because a language is system-independent, doesn't mean people haven't written frameworks for it that aren't system-independent.
C++ has no standard, built-in GUI library. If you want to make cross-platform GUIs you must use an add-on library like C++, GTKmm, wx, etc.
If you're OK with targeting Windows only, MFC exists and is included with Visual C++.
If You want multi platform application, You should concern using Qt. It makes multi platform development easier by providing API for handling both Windows and Linux (and others). You can use Qt in Visual Studio easily. And is really easy to learn. Check official Qt docs for integration tips.
OK, the point is that qt claims (and prooves) to be platform independent. It shouldn't matter at least if you compile it on a windows platform using either the MinGw GCC or MSVC toolchain.
The difference is, if you use Visual Studio's integrated GUI support, you'll end up with their proprietary, non portable CLR/CLI implementations, and the code won't be portable for other platforms.
I'm developing a segmentation tool (for research purpose, not for commercial use) and I was wondering which graphical user interface should I use as there are many.
I'm looking for a relatively simple interface which allows me to do as follows on the same window:
*Input variables that will be used by the algorithm
*Browse a folder and select images
*Call functions by clicking on a button
*Display an image that will evolve while the algorithm is running
I'm coding in c++ with visual studio 2010 and I'm using additional libraries such as OpenCV, so the GUI library must be compilable and usable on console project on VS2010.
So far I've tried Qt, FLTK, GTK+ but Qt as compatible issues on x64 architectures, FLTK is lacking documentation and I'm not sure it answers to my needs and GTK+ wasn't working.
Thank you very much for any input and help you can give me.
Keep it simple.
If working with C++ on Windows with a "non-express" version of Visual-Studio, just use MFC.
The framework is mature and there are tons of reference, examples and samples on the web (codeproject, codeguru, MSDN, ... )
Have you tried OpenCV's own highgui?
http://opencv.willowgarage.com/documentation/python/highgui__high-level_gui_and_media_i_o.html
"While OpenCV was designed for use in full-scale applications and can
be used within functionally rich UI frameworks (such as Qt, WinForms
or Cocoa) or without any UI at all, sometimes there is a need to try
some functionality quickly and visualize the results. This is what the
HighGUI module has been designed for."
Also see: OpenCV and creating GUIs
I want to start making graphical user interfaces in C++ in some IDE, easy to learn and have enough documentation and examples. Besides being multiplatform, ie the final application can be run on both Linux and Windows
Some suggestions or experiences?
I would recommend Qt Creator.
The Qt libraries are multiplatform, cover a wide range of features and are well documented; the IDE too runs almost everywhere, is really easy to set up and is very well integrated with the library.
Other open source alternatives may be the wxWidgets with e.g. CodeBlocks, but in my opinion they aren't as good (in terms of completeness and documentation), and you don't have such a good integration with the IDE (also, in my experience setting up wxWidgets development on Windows needs some work).
You can use Eclipse which is open source and works well on Linux/Windows . There is descent documentation available as well..
I have searched the web for information on creating GUIs(Games, Forms etc) in c++, I have found that OpenGL, Direct X and .Net framework can do this. The question I ask is which one is better to learn, what library for GUI in c++ is the most popular in industry. I know this is a newbie question, but if some on could lead me to the correct path it would be greatly appreciated.
OpenGL and DirectX are different to .Net framework. OpenGL and DirectX are for game development (Graphic acceleration) but .Net framework is for .Net development. If you use .Net framework then your program is not compiled to native code, it will be compiled to MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) then .Net translate it to Native code at run-time (for the first time).
If you want a GUI toolkit for your C++ program, Qt, MFC and wxWidgets are a good choice. Qt and wxWidgets are cross-platform libraries thus your program will be compiled on all platforms (Windows/Linux/Mac OS). But MFC is only available for Windows. Qt is more feature-rich than wxWidgets and maybe is a better choice.
I like QT myself.
Because you mentioned DirectX I'll assume your using windows, for that I would reccomend the basic Win32 API. If you want cross platform capabilities however, I would suggest Qt.
I have searched the web for information on creating GUIs(Games, Forms etc) in c++...
What would work fine for creating traditional form-based applications won't work so well for creating games, and vice versa.
You would be better off using C# with the .NET libraries as the C++ managed extensions can be a little cumbersome. If you must go with C++, then Qt and wxWidgets are both decent options, although you're more likely to find more help and online resources for QT.
If you need to do graphics like games, then you'd better off using a higher level library than directly using DirectX or OpenGL. Ogre3d is one option on the open source side, the C4 engine is an affordable option on the commercial side. If C# is an option, then might want to look at XNA and Unity3d.
I want to make a nice simple gui using c++. which have drag and drop capabilities, must be light weight. Im thinking of a gui like utorrent client gui.Its light weight and simple.
please give me information about most easy to use libraries / ide /plugin (on windows platform may be good).
Either use QT or wxWidgets. Both are free to use, but QT uses more advanced features of C++ and is used slightly more than wxWidgets (From what I have seen) and has the backing of Nokia.
Both have various gui editors. QT has a QT Creator and there is a list of tools on the wxWiki, which includes a lot of open source RAD gui designers.
I have experience of using wxWidgets in both C++ and Python, and would recommend wxFormBuilder as a GUI designer.
The downside to both is they feel the need to use their own string classes etc which duplicates the functionality of the stl. From what I understand is that this is because when the projects were started there wasn't a standard.
Qt seems to be the most natural choice for your requirements. It has a complete SDK which includes a GUI builder (Qt Designer), an IDE (Qt Creator), internationalization tools and comprehensive documentation. It can also be integrated with such IDEs as Eclipse and MSVS.
In addition to GUI libraries, it has lots of utility classes including containers, facilities for working with file system, processes, XML-data and databases, etc. So you can write the code only once and it will work on every platform supported by Qt, you'll just need to recompile it.
If it seems a little too stodgy at first glance, you may rebuild the Qt libraries from source to include only those modules you actually need.
P.S. I wouldn't suggest using MFC. It's just doesn't worth the effort when you have a more friendly and easy-to-grasp choice.
I would go with QT.
Some of the PROs:
Free as in "free beer"
Free as in "free speech"
Multiplatform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS)
Natively written in C++
Easy to use
In my opinion, some of the CONs:
If you are only targeting Windows platform, you might get better looking (and faster?) UIs with MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes)
Yet another vote for Qt. I am using it since about 8 years for now (EDA branch) and it works out very good.