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I was wondering is there an Microsoft alternative to MFC, except WinForms in GUI programming for Windows operating system ?
I dont want to use thirdparty (Borland/Qt/wxWindows) libraries. WinForms require .NET which is major problem (can't install .NET in destination machines) and MFC is traumatic to me...
Any alternative which would be close to Qt but Microsoft branded ?
I would appreciate any suggestions!
I too suggest WTL. Here is a list with some useful WTL links:
MSDN's ATL 3.0 Window Classes: An Introduction - for the basics.
WTL Articles by Chris Sells, Dharma Shukla, and Nenad Stefanovic part1 and part2. Nenad Stefanovic is the father of WTL.
Bjarke Viksoe's WTL projects. Bjarne has summed many of his small projects into a whole application, an IDE - BVRDE.
Code Project's WTL page. Watch out especially the articles written by Michael Dunn. VMware Workstation uses WTL and Michael Dunn works for VMware.
Clipcode's WTL Developer’s Guide (doc, pdf, source code).
WTL opensource applications, which one can study to see various implementation tricks:
Google's Chromium, source code here. The windows version uses WTL. I don't know if somebody has tried to extract the WTL framework from Chromium.
Programmer's Notepad uses WTL, source code here.
InfraRecorder uses WTL, source code here.
Try WTL. This library was originally created by Microsoft and then went open source. On the contrary with MFC, many developers report good experiences with it. It builds lighter executables, it is better structured than MFC, but also not so feature rich.
I don't think there's any. You can use pure WinAPI, ATL, WTL (in this case good luck!).
Why don't you want to use Qt? Its free, open source and very flexible tool.
Although I love it and have used it extensively, WTL is quite an effort to learn as the documentation isn't great. There are some great 'WTL for MFC Programmers' articles on Code Project which are an absolute must-read.
However, if you want something Qt-like from MS, then you're only left with MFC I'm afraid. OK, it's long in the tooth but with the addition of the VS2008 SP1 MFC Feature Pack you can create Office 2007-like apps complete with ribbons. This might be your best solution if only MS non-.NET tech is allowed.
There is not any. Do not waste your time for searching.
Any alternative which would be close to Qt but Microsoft branded
If by "close to Qt" you mean similar in design to Qt, then no - there is not. I use WTL and like it, but it is very different from Qt.
You could always go with the Windows API directly and bypass MFC.
I don't get it. If it isn't Win32 or MFC or Windows.Forms, then what you are looking for is by definition 3rd party.
All these people recommending WTL are recommending you download some third party project's toolkit and use it. That's fine, if that's what you are looking for. But if you do that, then I strongly suggest looking at Qt or wxWidget. The former for the most full-featured set you can get and the latter for drawing native widgets using a "more sane" API.
Aside: WTL may be downloadable from MS server, but its a far, far cry from a MS-supported technology. It is an unsupported add-on.
Related
I'm developing my first Windows desktop application and I'm trying to figure out what the best approach would be to create the program's GUI.
I know, I know... I feel stupid for asking considering the amount of data on the subject on SO. However most answers seem outdated and I'm not sure if they fit my specific project. Also tutorials for Windows 8 'metro apps' are clogging my Google search results, which is NOT what I'm looking for.
I use Visual Studio. I've followed tutorials. I have basic knowledge of C and Java and extensive experience with PHP. I'm excited to learn C++, so I'm not looking for GUIs to create a GUI (like WinForms). I also don't care about managed code and portability for now, especially since I'm trying to avoid dependencies (i.e. users having to install .NET). As long as it runs smoothly on Vista and up, I'm happy.
The application
The software will teach basic physics to kids. I'd like to create a main area and a sidebar. The main area will feature a physics animation, say a bouncing ball, along with some Q&A. Users can zoom in to the animation to measure some stuff and answer the question. Users can track their progress in the sidebar. That's pretty much it.
What I've found so far
I'm getting a bit frustrated with MSDN. Most of their examples are given in four different languages (C#, C++, etc). I can't seem to get more than a bit of Hello World code from them.
I found a GDI API on MSDN and it seems like a good start for me. However I've read quite a few answers on SO saying creating layouts in pure C++ is really hard, that we're better of using frameworks like ATL and WTL. Since I'm also going to create (somewhat interactive) animations, I've wondered whether I should use gaming-targeted APIs like Direct2D.
Since all of this is new to me, and there are a lot of options, I don't know where to start for my particular application. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Using the raw Win32 API (no additional downloads or third-party helpers):
Here's a good primer (introduces dialog boxes, text boxes, buttons, etc): theForger's Win32 API Tutorial
And here's where you go from there (numeric up-downs, list boxes, combo boxes, tooltips, and more): Common Controls on MSDN. Most of these require you to #include <commctrl.h>.
I also found this to be a good resource that covered what the other two didn't: Win32 Developer - Window Assets
But the Win32 API doesn't seem like it does exactly what you want. A physics app for kids should have a more visual GUI than the API can provide. Good luck, though!
If you're ok with adding additional Frameworks, I'd suggest looking at Qt.
It allows to create the GUI from code only, has a good structure, and has an Interface for 2D drawing, if required.
If you are concerned about dependencies, you only have to include the Qt DLLs to your executables; no installation is required for the user.
To get started, see my (old) tutorial "Lessons in Windows API Programming".
But you really need a good book, such as edition 5 or earlier of Charles Petzold's classic "Programming Windows".
The problem with latest edition is that it's for C# and .NET, with Charles grabbing the tail of the "new way" at just the wrong time…
Disclaimer: I haven't checked the details of edition numbers.
Using the Windows API is the simplest, but producing advanced GUIs can take a very long time. Microsoft Foundation Class is a way to make the Windows API more user friendly and OOP. Does anyone have any experience with MFC?
Why not use some 2D C++ game engine, like HGE: http://hge.relishgames.com/overview.html.
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Is it possible to develop a C++ program while using HTML and CSS for the user interface? I know about programming with Javascript using a Webkit container, but I am really interested in C++ development.
I felt in love with C# WPF when I developed under Windows, but now I moved to Linux and I haven't found a good tool for using markup for interfaces. For this, I would like to mix HTML and CSS, which are very lightweight and easy to use, with C++ code, with something like WPF.
Oh, one more thing: I'm looking for desktop development, not web.
Yes, it is possible. What you want is a C++ web framework. You could start by looking at CppCMS—a Free High Performance Web Development Framework (not a CMS) aimed for Rapid Web Application Development.
Edit: After the question has been clarified, I think Awesomium would be a good fit for your needs.
You can achieve the same functionality by embedding WebKit (or Gecko) but as far as I know that is exactly what Awesomium does behind the scenes.
An alternative is librocket—a C++ interface middleware package designed for game applications. As you can guess from the description it is a good fit for games or real-time applications.
Sciter is exactly that - embeddable HTML/CSS engine with C/C++ API. Compact and multi-platform.
And check this article.
Sciter has the same feature set as WPF but uses HTML/CSS instead of XAML and uses native API.
Features out of the box:
HTML, CSS, SVG, aPNG (animated PNGs), image sprites,
<plaintext> - editor with syntax highlighting,
<htmlarea> - WYSIWYG HTML editor,
<frame type=pager> - print preview and HTML/CSS print,
animations,
HTTP client, REST/JSON client, WebSocket's, DataSockets,
etc.
The same application with Sciter UI running on Windows, MacOS and Linux from the same sources:
Disclaimer: I am an author of Sciter Engine.
2021 update: you can also use Sciter.JS that is version of Sciter that uses standard JavaScript (ES2020) script engine.
I think Electron would be a nice addition to the other answers.
It uses NodeJS to run a Webkit Window. Electron itself is only html/css/js, but you can use any Node Module within your Electron App - including custom, natively compiled C++ code. A possible Module to embed your C++ code would be node-gyp.
Be aware, however, that this workflow may include a little bit more JS than you would have with the other answers.
My favourite text editor, Atom, was made with Electron.
You can use Chromium Embedded Framework to embed HTML5 content in your app.
You'll get might and speed of Chromium and ability to build GUI apps the same way you develop web applications.
I suggest checking out Ultralight HTML UI Engine
Not Open Source, Available for C++. OpenGL and DirectX rendering supported.
Ultralight is the lighter, faster option to integrate HTML UI in your
C++ app.
It's made by the creator of Awesomium, who unfortunately decided to delete Awesomium.
If you need something more heavy weight I recommend taking a look at CEF. It’s a very powerful (and open source) tool.
I would suggest RmlUI
Its an active fork of librocket with more features. Its very modular, you can handle rendering, event handling and user input yourself (or copy one from provided examples).
Note: RmlUI doesn't support full HTML5/CSS3 specifications, but only a subset of it. Animations are supported tho.
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I'm making desktop application for my own use.
I can't decide on whcih language/toolkit/framework to use.
I would like a good User experience and a not so bad Performance.
The choices in my mind are:
wxPython
Titanium
Adobe AIR
any other suggestions that would fit
-- EDIT
I would also like it to be cross-platform
Experience, I've got some experience in Java, Python, HTML/JS. (Haven't done much .net stuff).
I would live to learn if needed.
There are a lot of other considerations.
What platform? What OS? What level of backward compatibility? What runtimes are on the clients?
What sort of graphics support do you need? 3D? 2D?
What kind of interoperability do you need?
What are your deployment scenarios?
What languages do you want to write this in?
There are literally hundreds of technologies out there. You can only come up with a design when you have specified what your main constraints are.
The first thing I'll say is that I would favour Web applications where possible. Of course for many things you can't—Web browsers for example. :) But where you can you should. Sure you have cross-browser issues but the OS/library cost of a desktop app is really high now.
That being said, if what you're doing needs to be done as a desktop app or you simply want to do it that way as a personal preference I would choose:
.Net (C# or VB.NET) if you only need to run on Windows or
Java (Swing, SWT, etc) if you want to run on non-Windows platforms.
I would choose from these two for no other reason than they're the most proven. Sure there are other options Adobe Air, Python, etc. Python in particular has real apps written in it so it would be my third choice. Overall though, these stacks are just less proven for this particular task.
depending on your desktop OS. For Windows, you may get Microsoft Visual Studio Express Edition of C# or VB.Net. For Mac computer intel based computer, you have free XCODE available to do it or use JavaScript to build widget applications.
Another option to look at would be QT. It's a cross platform C++ framework with Java & Python Bindings. It really does boil down to what type of application you want to build though and which platform(s) you want to target it at. If you're aiming at Windows specifically, you might want to consider using .NET and C# to take advantage of native support, on OSX, Objective-C and Cocoa, or on Linux C/C++ & whichever API set your targeted distro uses. And for cross-platform, which platforms would you like to target? Windows? OSX? Linux (Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Fedora etc.)? That will also dictate your choice.
Try Flexonrails
then convert with adobeAir
:)
it will be good
im doing my desktop application with that
Depending on what skills and tools you have available to you, as others have pointed out.
If you're on windows one simple accessable option is HTA applications.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536496(VS.85).aspx
if you're on a mac, dashcode is a similar option for, not just authoring widgets, but also full on web applications.
both options give you access to many more api's than typical javascript has access to, such as filesystem access, or the ability to execute system commands.
There's a zillion others, but those options come for for free with their respective operating systems.
Dependes on what kind of application you would like to build, but you definitely should put in your list of tools to evaluate (at least) Delphi.
It compiles to native win32, is a rapid application development tool and has support for a lot of areas like databases, internet, com and many many others. Also, is built into Object Pascal, a very simple to learn language.
Up to some point, you can make it's applications cross platform using others IDEs like Lazarus in Linux.
As of 20 march-2018 almost everything has shifted to javascript. Have a look at Electron.js . Its usefull to build cross platform desktop apps in javascript , html and css.
I am considering using smartwin for a Windows platform only C++ project but notice that there has not been a release for 18months since 2.0rc5 was released i.e. it appears that it is no longer maintained.
After playing with it seems pretty good, I like it's use of templates, signals/slots (via boost) and it will meet the project needs but I would like some experiences of other users who are currently using it to help me weight it up?
Have you looked at Qt instead? I think it has a lot of the features you're looking for, and would be much better supported, both in developer tools and framework maturity.
"...we really don't need a full application framework or cross platform portability - just a lite Win32 GUI framework that can be easily added to an existing app "
That is exactly what Smartwin was created for. Combine that with the Sally IDE, and you'll have a complete RAD development environment that is fast compact and complete. Note that Google is currently using WTL for their Chrome browser, but Smartwin is even more efficient than WTL.
Smartwin Also has a library called Winelib that they hope will make this also a portable environment in the long term.
Personally, if you want to go portable, I'd go with wxWidgets. However, if you are planning for sure to stay with windows, I'd certainly give Smartwin++ a look.
I, myself, would use wxWidgets, as thats what I usually use and am used to, so thats kind just a personal choice.
Good Luck.
-Donald
Consider using wxWidgets. It is mature, well supported library with lots of features.
Went for WTL in the end and that's been a pretty seamless and painless transition. Thanks for the comments and responses everyone.
Ultimate++
http://www.ultimatepp.org/
Now that I know C++ I want to get into desktop application that have a UI instead of Command Prompt stuff, where should I start?, and what are some good online resources?
wxWidgets is a cross platform GUI library for C++ (and other languages). The main site should have enough pointers to resources to get going.
You might also want to check out this question/answer here on stack overflow if you are specifically thinking of Windows
If cross platform support is important then I would second the suggestion to look at Qt. It supports Windows, Linux and the Mac. For free software it is free (there is a GPL version on Unix but not for Windows) but for comercial software it is not particulary cheap. There are now several books on Programming with Qt.
It does come with a large number of extra libraries for networking, parsing XML etc. It also has integration with Visual Studio on Windows.
One downside with Qt is that there are not as many add on libraries as with some other GUI frameworks. Ot will depend on the type of applications that you wish to write whether this is important to you or not.
I use Codegear's C++ Builder. It's C++ language support is not 100% but it more than makes up for it by having a great two-way RAD IDE and the ability to use a huge library of existing Delphi components.
How about QT? Its cross-platform and its is used in a lot of commercial softwares.
On Linux and maybe Windows, you can use Gtk+ with Glade. Gtk+ is the GUI toolkit. Glade is a GUI drag and drop GUI editor. If you came from Windows or Java and thought GUI programming is hard, this stuff is easy.
If marketability is a concern, then C++/CLI with WinForms and WPF which really translates to "just learn WinForms and WPF, regardless of what specific language you use".
CodeProject has a ton of WinForms/WPF samples/tutorials to get you started.
The Fox GUI Toolkit
Really decent tried-and-true toolkit with a very nice event system. I've used the Ruby port, and my Windows apps had a very native look and feel.
It might lack some features, but FLTK is an incredibly simple cross-platform GUI library.
If you are using Windows the traditional place to start is Petzold
There is a nice simple framework here which will help you on the way without abstracting too much away.
Get Visual Studio Express, and start with a MFC "Dialog Based" application. All the window toolkits mentioned are good, but MFC will look the best on a resume!