Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
We don’t allow questions seeking recommendations for books, tools, software libraries, and more. You can edit the question so it can be answered with facts and citations.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
I've been looking around and came across the WT toolkit, Is it stable? Any good?
I was stumped on how to go about this in C++, given the lack of libraries and resources concerning web developement. (CGI/Apache)
The purpose of my application is to populate some data from a Sybase ASE15 database running GNU/Linux & Apache Hence allow some user interactions.
I am going to use Sybase open client library (libct) to retrieve columns from the Server, feed this data back to wt model/view.
My requests:
Is there any more practical solution rather than using other scripting languages?
I mean by practical, an interface with ODBC retrieving, and MVC mechanism?
If not available in C++, any alternative in Java?
C++ isn't a very popular choice for
web applications - probably because
it's too easy to leave security holes,
and development time tends to be a lot
slower than for the scripting
languages.
Dynamically typed scripting languages convert compile-time errors to runtime errors. Detecting those might not be as easy as reading through the compiler output. Scripting languages may be OK for quick-and-dirty simple projects. Beyond a certain level of complexity one needs strongly typed, well-structured languages. Such as C++, or Java.
Most scripting languages encourage sloppy programming.
As to the "security holes": if you refer to buffer overruns, allocation/deallocation errors, the answer is "STL". And proper training of course :-)
http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt#/
http://cppcms.sourceforge.net/wikipp/en/page/main
C++ web service framework
For starters. There are certainly more I'm sure - a healthy google search probably wouldn't hurt. Also, you could try the #C++ channel on freenode - they have an offtopic channel that you can ask about if you want to talk about non STL C++ and the people there would happily answer your questions I'm sure. Good Luck.
tntnet (http://www.tntnet.org) is great for creating web applications with C++.
Give this one a look. I never much liked Wt's design. But then, I'm kind of an anti-framework guy.
http://cppcms.sourceforge.net/wikipp/en/page/main
CGI programs are pretty damn easy to write in both C and C++ - you don't really need any special library, though having one will obviously make development a little faster. Do you really understand how CGI works? Basically, your program reads environment variables with getenv(), does some processing, and then writes some HTML out to the program's standard output.
You might want to check out klone:
http://koanlogic.com/klone/index.html
Basically, it's a framework AND server that makes writing C++ web backends easy...
The best web toolkit for C/C++ would be Apache httpd. Just write a module and you can use libct to access your database.
There is MVC modules out there like mod_spin but I don't have any experience with it.
C++ isn't a very popular choice for web applications - probably because it's too easy
to leave security holes, and development time tends to be a lot slower than for the
scripting languages. I'd say 99% of web applications don't need the speed that
C++ brings.
So this leads to a lack of good frameworks.
From my fairly light look at the area I'd say Wt is probably your best bet, although
it's more of a library of useful things (like page templates) than a framework.
I'd seriously consider not doing this in C++ though. Even Java (I prefer C++ myself) has
much stronger support for web development.
Another alternative may be the "FastCGI / CGI C++ Library" that is aimed for Boost integration at someday: http://cgi.sourceforge.net/
Qt is going to grow day by day. And Wt is the trying to stand for web tool kit based on Qt. C++ the powerful language and the best in my opinion. If you like gnu projects and independent tech. I really suggest to use them. I used PHP, Phyton, C#, VisualBasic, Fortran etc. but I did not like as much as C++ among of them.
I gave Wt a try and really liked it. I will not give you any cons or pros for using it from scratch, but when you have a backend written in C/C++ with millions of API entries then Wt is an obvious choice. There are some very powerful features that is easier to use for example dynamically loaded tables. Signal processing on the server etc.
One thing I really disliked at Wt is that it is not compatible with Apache on Windows as of time of this writing. You either have to use Unix, or IIS on Windows. Wt also offers its own http server, that is very convenient for developing your applications but I would not trust it in the role of production server as I am not sure of its security.
My personal choice for web development is Ruby on Rails, but if you have to chose between C, C++ or Java for web development, my suggestion is to use Java with JavaServer Faces
Apache Celix looks like a promising active project that meets the requirements of this (albeit old) question. See: http://celix.apache.org/
From the Apache Project description page:
Celix is an implementation of the OSGi specification adapted to C. It will follow the API as close as possible, but since the OSGi specification is written primarily for Java, there will be differences (Java is OO, C is procedural). An important aspect of the implementation is interoperability between Java and C. This interoperability is achieved by porting and implementing the Remote Services specification in Celix.
Related
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
Closed 8 years ago.
We don’t allow questions seeking recommendations for books, tools, software libraries, and more. You can edit the question so it can be answered with facts and citations.
Questions asking us to recommend or find a book, tool, software library, tutorial or other off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Instead, describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it.
Improve this question
I'm planning on developing mobile application for both iOS and Android and I want to use C++ for the development.
Which cross-platform framework is available for building mobile application using the C++ language.
I'm sure a lot of people have this question as well, so read this if you'd really like to know the answer. Marmalade is probably the BEST solution. Code once, deploy to mobile devices, desktops, even some TV's. Many popular games have been created with Marmalade.
Extensive games like:
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Call of Duty: World at War Zombies
But also simple games like:
draw something.
Doodle Jump
They've added a free package. You can create your game for free and if you want to get rid of the ad splash screen, it's $150,- per year for mobile devices or $500,- per year for other devices as well.
A big advantage is the native speed. It doesn't matter what people claim about other languages like javascript or java (and unfortunately Qt, which of course isn't a language but you know what I mean) running as fast as C or C++. It's simply not true. For simple applications this is of course not important, but when you're looking at (simple) games, this is crucial.
At the moment version 7.3 is available, but this version has a problem with the ARM emulator. I would download 7.0.
Whether you choose Marmalade or not, make sure you read the documentation. You don't want to end up missing some functionality and switch to another option when you're almost finished.
I've looked into portable code between Android and iOS before and I don't think it's possible.
To release apps into the Android market it needs to be in Java, and anything with a GUI on iOS needs to use Objective-C.
You might be able to have partial portable C++ layer, but in reality it's probably quicker to write the same app twice in Java and Obj-C than it would be to write it once in C++ as a portable solution.
Qt or Wx-Widgets might have some support, but I have not looked into mobile platforms for these, and I suspect the reality is that Apple, Microsoft and Oracle want you to be tied into their technologies these days and have no incentive to make things portable.
C# and Java provide a complete framework that allows code to be written much quicker using well documented classes and libraries, especially when dealing with user interfaces.
C++ on the other hand relies on many open source projects that take a lot of effort to get functioning on multiple platforms, and much time is spent dealing with subtle platform problems.
My suggestion was simply that it might be easier to pick a language better suited to the platform you are dealing with, as C++ tends to be lower level than other languages, the syntax can seem verbose and many hours can be wasted trying to make things work that you would expect to just work, and unfortunately documentation for many open source projects is poor.
Maybe this can be considered to be an opinion, but then the shift from C++ to C# or Java commercially might also indicate that I'm not the only one believing this.
You can take a look on openFrameworks, maybe it fits on your needs:
http://openframeworks.cc/about/
There ARE solutions for C++ cross-platform development for Android and iPhone, despite what other answers say here.
The best is probably Marmalade, but it's expensive, so only useful for commercially viable apps: https://www.madewithmarmalade.com/
Then there's MoSync, which you can use for free. Unfortunately they went bankrupt last year, so there's no ongoing support. Still, might be worth a look depending on your needs. http://www.mosync.com
OpenFrameworks is one I hadn't seen, so thanks Rodrigo for that answer: http://openframeworks.cc/
There is no cross platform solution using C++, unless you're interested in making games. There are a few options available if you don't mind using another programming language. Take a look at Titanium SDK (Javascript), Xamarin (C#) or the multitude of HTML5/CSS/Javascript frameworks (Phonegap comes to mind).
Look for the DragonFire SDK it allows you to write apps and games in c/c++. Not cross-platform and never used it but looks good. It uses Visual Studio and has its own simulator for iOS development.
I have written an simple applications in C++, and I need to connect with any RIA just for viewing the process ... is there is any good RIA based on C++
Qt is a good, popular cross-platform GUI library for C++.
I don't know whether it matches your definition of "RIA", though.
Silverlight is the nearest framework for you. You may find this Stackoverflow question interesting.
Update
After seeing your comment, I'd recommend you using ISAPI or CGI programming in C or C++
Update 2
After figuring that you need to execute C++ code from browsers, The answer is ActiveX. But portability is an issue, rather.
Generally speaking, this is difficult to do. Clients don't trust running arbitrary C++ code from the internet, because people don't want every website under the sun to be able to install malware, and generally hijack the entire machine, every time they visit a web site. In the general case, therefore, what you want is not really possible.
If you're willing to require the user to answer a ton of prompts, and are okay restricting your application to Internet Explorer on Windows, you could familiarize yourself with COM and write an ActiveX control.
I would strongly advise against doing so, however.
Have you looked at Qt? It comes with Webkit built-in. It is also more portable than other RIA implementations. BTW, most RIA implementations run on language virtual machines that are in turn implemented in C or C++ :-)
Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post.
Closed 3 years ago.
Improve this question
I don't want to build the Thunderbird functionality. I just want to build a project with plug-in features, cross platform, and easy to install. Is there any document which point to the development of Firefox or Thunderbird?
I know the Thunderbird is build in C++, then how can i get these kind of graphics and all other function.
Please help me.
In the spirit of other answers, I feel obliged to point out that Mozilla provides the platform they used to build their applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird, -- see XULRunner.
With XULRunner you
develop interfaces in XUL (cross-platform UI description language that Firefox and Thunderbird use) or even HTML,
develop program logic in JavaScript or, if you really need to, C++ (or even Python, like Komodo does),
have support for the same extension mechanism as used Firefox/Thunderbird
Here's a partial list of applications built on top of XULRunner: XULRunner Hall of Fame.
To answer your original question, the Mozilla platform provides rich functionality on many platforms by specifying a set of cross-platform APIs (e.g. (oversimplifying) XUL for interface definitions) and implementing each API on each platform.
Implementing such a cross-platform layer from scratch is lots of work, so instead of trying to look at and copy Thunderbird's implementation, you should pick one of the cross-platform solutions mentioned in the answers here (Mozilla, Eclipse, QT, wxWidgets, etc.)
Each has its strengths and weaknesses, without knowing your current expertise and requirements it's not possible to pick one for you.
You can browse the source code of Firefox here:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/firefox/source/.
And Thunderbird:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/.
Anyway if you want to build a portable app with plug-ins I suggest you forget about trying to copy Mozilla and learn Qt or wxWidgets instead.
Eclipse RCP can be a good solution to build rich cross-platform client applications with plug-in features.
Eclipse RCP is based on Java and SWT technologies.
Here is a list of applications build with Eclipse RCP. A demo mail client build with RCP is also available here. Another great software build with RCP is RSSOwl, a feed reader.
While selecting a language/platform for development, I think the following points are to be thought of:
Development support for the features looking for.
Maintainability - in terms of the support of the platform/language, how much it is supported for maintenance.
Compatibility with the platforms of intention (cross platform etc.)
Future expandability of the language/platform
C++ is simply a great language. The rest (making use of rich graphics etc.) is to learn...
Lots of options and others have already suggested good ideas. Java will make your life (reasonably) easy but C/C++ give you more power at the expense of needing to abstract APIs.
I should add be careful - it'll likely be difficult to make changes to your app once you have committed to one set of technologies and done some serious development without re-writing. For example, if you chose C and the Apache Portable Runtime, you might have a hard time converting to something else. Likewise if you write a UI in swing, converting to SWT/Eclipse will mean a UI rewrite. I don't want to discourage you, just add a warning that I think x-platform apps require quite careful planning.
A few notes r.e. the Mozilla tree too. Thunderbird/Firefox etc essentially build from the same source tree, just using different components. The Mozilla build system is pretty complicated, in my opinion more so than the Linux Kernel. Thus, Manuel's suggestion about forgetting Mozilla is a good one unless there's something to be gained by their route.
Mozilla's category manager makes it very easy to add plugin support to your application, but like other posters said, you'll have a fair hill to climb before you get there.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
Will learning C++ help me build native applications with good speed? Will it help me as a programmer, and what are the other benefits?
The reason why I want to learn C++ is because I'm disappointed with the UI performances of applications built on top of JVM and .NET. They feel slow, and start slow too. Of course, a really bad programmer can create a slower and sluggish application using C++ too, but I'm not considering that case.
One of my favorite Windows utility application is Launchy. And in the Readme.pdf file, the author of the program wrote this:
0.6 This is the first C++ release. As I became frustrated with C#’s large
.NET framework requirements and users
lack of desire to install it, I
decided to switch back to the faster
language.
I totally agree with the author of Launchy about the .NET framework requirement or even a JRE requirement for desktop applications. Let alone the specific version of them. And some of the best and my favorite desktop applications don't need .NET or Java to run. They just run after installing. Are they mostly built using C++? Is C++ the only option for good and fast GUI based applications?
And, I'm also very interested in hearing the other benefits of learning C++.
yep, C++ is absolutely great. Check Qt. It has a great Python binding too, so you can easily prototype in Python, and when/if you need extra performance, porting to C++ is a mostly 1:1 translation.
But in fact, writing C++ isn't so hard either when you have a great platform, the worst part is writing all the class declarations :-)
If you want to build Windows applications that will run without frameworks such as .NET or virtual machines/interpreters, then your only really viable choices are going to be Visual Basic or C/C++
I've written some small Windows apps before in C++ code, and there is definitely a benefit in terms of speed and ease of deployment, at the expense of difficulty going up for development. C++ can be very fast, natively compiles, has many modern language features, and wide support. The trade off is that it's likely that you'll need to write more code in certain situations, or seek out libraries like Boost that provide the functionality you're after.
As a programmer, working in C++ and especially in C is good experience for helping you understand something just a tad closer to the machine than say, .NET, Java or a scripting language like VBScript, Python, Perl etc. It won't necessarily make you a better programmer, but if you are open to learning new lessons from it you may find that it helps you gain a new perspective on software. After all, most of the frameworks and systems you depend on are written in pure C, so it will never hurt you to understand the foundations. C++ is a different animal from straight C, but if you develop in C++ for Windows you'll likely find yourself working in a mix of C and C++ to work with Windows APIs, so it will have a trickle-down effect.
I wrote C++ windows apps for 10 years and switched to c# about 2 years ago to work on the latest product. I am embarrassed by how pathetic the C# app is. It takes 20 seconds to start up, you have to wait a second or so for it to switch between screens. I've used some third party GUI control library, and that leaks memory like a sieve! My app runs at 150 meg, and its doing hardly anything.
I am looking to go back to C++.
You can use MFC, it will be far quicker than .Net. Or, if you really want to burn, check out WTL - aLthough, there's not much documentation for that. I suggest you go with either MFC or Qt because you'll find plenty of good information and tutorials for them.
I can see that C# can be quicker to develop with, and maybe in some future version it will be quicker and smaller.
You will hate my answer:
The biggest bottlenecks in GUI development usually are not because of the language. After all most of the time in most applications the UI is idling, waiting for some user input. I can hear your screams already, but I said in most of the apps.
Let's put it this way: I am pretty sure that one can design a good UI on top of the .Net CLR. Learning C++ is a good thing, but will not solve the inherent problems of developing a good UI.
As always. It depends.
As long as you stay away from microsofts large Frameworks, as MFC, .net etc your applications can be blazing fast, but hard to code. Your benefit: You will really learn how windows is working behind its nice(?)surface. Just look into the initialisation code for COM-Objects and you know what I mean. You will never see such things in VB or C#
You have to program each button, each window and each control by yourself, sending silly window messages, however your applications are small, very small. This is an forgotten art:
Write small, fast programs
Good luck!
If you're committed to learning the raw, gritty details of Win32, then C++ will get you there. If you're not, then you'll end up using a bunch of wrappers anyway. For something like a small utility or especially something like a shell extension (where trying to use .NET will cause you problems anyway), C++ will let you write effective code with the absolute minimum in external dependencies. For a larger app, YMMV - a lot of the UI sluggishness out there comes from poor design: naive algorithms, an unwillingness to spin off non-trivial operations onto separate thread(s), reliance on badly-written 3rd-party components instead of custom controls... Mistakes easily made in any language.
Here is my honest answer to this.
First, I think every programmer should learn C/C++ just for the fact that by learning C++ you learn about programming. It is a systems-level language. You have to consider the finer details of memory management and so forth. I am shocked at how many programmers do not understand the foundational aspects of a programming language or computer system. By learning C/C++, you force yourself to understand programming at a more intimate level. On top of that, if you learn how to program in C/C++, you can program in almost anything.
That isn't to say C/C++ is always the right tool for the job. It can be a total pain to debug and take longer to write more meaningful code. However, it is perfect for those situations where you need absolute control of how a program executes.
This goes to say, I don't prefer C/C++ for UI programming. You still have to use a windowing framework specific to the OS you run on (MFC,Win32,Motif,GTK,QT,etc.). These frameworks don't lend themselves to easy learning curves. For at least Windows development, .NET is really the future of UI development (even though surprisingly MFC got a major overhaul for Vista that does stuff .NET doesn't even do yet). If you write your UI in .NET, it is easier to maintain and for others to maintain.
I typically write my UI in .NET and backend in C++.
Yes and no. It's all about optimization...And since C++ allows you to work on a lower level C++ is one of the best languages to write fast applications.
However those low-level mechanics implemented in C++ could be very annoying if you're used to more abstract approaches to OOP.
Testing your software in C++ is usually a long process.
If you are looking for speed anyway, C++ would definitely be one of the best choices.
C++ will indeed potentially get you a leaner, meaner and faster application (if you do it right).
However, the .NET framework is built for comfort from a developer point of view; a vast improvement over Win32 API or MFC, which may seem like hard work in comparison, So consider how you will implement the aspects for which your application depends on .NET (there are other frameworks available that may be easier than MFC or Win32 API), and also consider the costs and license issues of using such frameworks; for example the free VC++ Express Edition for example does not include MFC support.
If you know where you application is sluggish, C++/CLI may be a solution; allowing you to mix managed and native code to accelerate the parts that need it. However if it is the GUI that is intrinsically slow rather than the application processing; this may not be a useful path.
Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 5 months ago.
Improve this question
I hope this question does not come off as broad as it may seem at first. I am designing a software application that I would like to be both cross-platform and modular. I am still in the planning phase and can pick practically any language and toolset.
This makes things harder, not easier, because there are seemingly so many ways of accomplishing both of the goals (modularity, platform agnosticism).
My basic premise is that security, data storage, interaction with the operating system, and configuration should all be handled by a "container" application - but most of the other functionality will be supplied through plug-in modules. If I had to describe it at a high level (without completely giving away my idea), it would be a single application that can do many different jobs, all dedicated to the same goal (there are lots of disparate things to do, but all the data has to interact and be highly available).
I find myself wrestling with not so much how to do it (I can think of lots of ways), but which method is best.
For example, I know that Eclipse practically embodies what I am describing, but I find Java applications in general (and Eclipse is no exception) to be too large and slow for what I need. Ditto desktop apps written Python and Ruby (which are excellent languages!)
I don't mind recompiling the code base for different platforms as native exectables. Yet, C and C++ have their own set of issues.
As a C# developer, I have a preference for managed code, but I am not at all sold on Mono, yet (I could be convinced).
Does anyone have any ideas/experiences/ specific favorite frameworks to share?
Just to cite an example: for .NET apps there are the CAB (Composite Application Block) and the Composite Application Guidance for WPF. Both are mainly implementations of a set of several design patterns focused on modularity and loose coupling between components similar to a plug-in architecture: you have an IOC framework, MVC base classes, a loosely coupled event broker, dynamic loading of modules and other stuff.
So I suppose that kind of pattern infrastructure is what you are trying to find, just not specifically for .NET. But if you see the CAB as a set of pattern implementations, you can see that almost every language and platform has some form of already built-in or third party frameworks for individual patterns.
So my take would be:
Study (if you are not familiar with) some of those design patterns. You could take as an example the CAB framework for WPF documentation: Patterns in the Composite Application Library
Design your architecture thinking on which of those patterns you think would be useful for what you want to achieve first without thinking in specific pattern implementations or products.
Once you have your 'architectural requirements' defined more specifically, look for individual frameworks that help accomplish each one of those patterns/features for the language you decide to use and put together your own application framework based on them.
I agree that the hard part is to make all this platform independent. I really cannot think on any other solution to choose a mature platform independent language like Java.
Are you planning a desktop or web application?
Everyone around here seems to think that Mono is great, but I still do not think it is ready for industry use, I would equate mono to where wine is, great idea; when it works it works well, and when it doesn't...well your out of luck. mod_mono for Apache is extremely glitchy and is hard to get running correctly.
If your aiming for the desktop, nothing beats the eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) framework: http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Rich_Client_Platform.
You can build window, linux, mac all under the same code and all UI components are native to the OS. And RCP wins in modularity hands down, it has a plug-in architecture that is unrivaled (from what I have seen)
I have worked with RCP for 1.5 years now and I dunno what else could replace it, it is #1 in it's niche.
If your totally opposed to java I would look into wxWidgets with either python or C++
If you want platform independence, then you'll have to trade off between performance and development effort. C++ may be faster than Java (this is debatable FWIW) but you'll get platform independence a lot more easily with Java. Python and Ruby are in the same boat.
I doubt that .NET would be much faster than Java (they're both VM languages after all), but the big problem with .NET is platform independence. Mono has a noble goal and surprisingly good results so far but it will always be playing catch-up with Microsoft on Windows. You might be able to accept its limitations but it's still not the same as having identical multiplatform environments that Java, Python, and Ruby have. Also: the .NET development and support tools are heavily skewed towards Windows, and probably always will be.
IMO, your best bet is to target Java... or, at the very least, the JVM. If you don't like the Java language (and as a C# dev I'm guessing that's not the case) then you at least have options like Jython, JRuby, and Scala. With the JVM, you get very good platform independence, good performance, and access to a huge number of libraries and support tools. There's almost always a Java library, port or implementation that will do what you need it to do. I don't think any other platform out there has the same number of options; there's real value in that flexibility.
As for modularity: that's more about how you build the software than what platform you use. I don't know much about plugin architectures like you describe but I'm guessing that it will be possible in pretty much any modern platform you pick.
If you plan on doing python development, you can always use pyrex to optimize some of the slower parts.
With my limited Mono experience I can say I'm quite sold on it. The fact that there is active development and a lot of ongoing effort to bring it up to spec with the latest .Net technologies is encouraging. It is incredibly useful to be able to use existing .Net skills on multiple platforms. I had similar issues with performance when attempting to accomplish some basic tasks in Python + PyGTK -- maybe they can be made to perform in the right hands but it is nice to not have to worry about performance 90% of the time.
For desktop applications, writing it in an interpreted language, and using a cross-platform UI toolkit like wxWidgets will get you a long way towards platform independence (you just have to be careful not to use any other modules that aren't cross-platform, use things like Python's os.path module, in place of doing things like config_path = "/home/$USER")
That said, to make a good cross-platform application, you will have to do some things differently on each platform..
For example, OS X is probably the most different - preferences are usually stored in ~/Library/Prefernces/ as .plists, UI's are generally based around floating windows, with a single menu-bar docked at the top-of-screen.
I suppose this is where the modularity comes into play.. With the preferences example above, you could have a class UserConfig, of which you have OS-specific versions of. The Windows one stores config data in the appropriate Application Data folder, or the registry. The Mac OS one uses .plist files on ~/Library/Preferences/, and the unix'y one uses ~/.dotfiles.