Currently all our GUI components are written in MFC. Our build environment is:
VC 6
Windows XP
I have no idea whether:
1) We can replace all MFC components with Qt, without changing build environment ?
2) Qt will work with VC6 as any other library?
You answers will help me in getting started, In the mean time I have installed Qt 4 and am trying to build some samples.
If we can replace all MFC components with QT, without changing build environment ?
Yes, you even get a MFC/Qt migration framework cf qt.nokia.com/products/appdev/add-on-products/catalog/4/Windows/qtwinmigrate/
Will Qt work with VC6 as any other library ?
VC6 is more than 10 years old!
Qt supports VC6 until version 4.5
The next release (4.6) will drop VC6 support cf qt.nokia.com/doc/4.6-snapshot/qt4-6-intro.html#performance-optimizations
You probably shouldn’t use VC6 with Qt 4.5. (see doc)
Apart from that: If your project compiles with Qt, you can easily* switch to Qt components. Qt uses its own componentens anyway, so there’s no other dependencies involved.
However, to set up the Qt environment, you might need to do a few changes to your build system, unless you’re not working with QObjects. (Think of the moc pre-processor.)
*: easily in the sense of being able to start using Qt components. The amount of work needed to actually migrate MFC components to those of Qt is something I don’t know anything about.
Replacing MFC to QT requires a big work to do. First of all you should think whether you need that. Second, Qt could be integrated with Visual Studio.
I learned something very useful when trying to port one client's MFC application to Qt.
I do a lot of refactoring. That doesn't scare me at all. However, I am usually incrementally changing things. That makes a huge difference.
I started porting the MFC application to Qt just after the LGPL version of Qt was released, but before the LGPL release of 'qtwinmigrate' (get it at ftp://ftp.qt.nokia.com/qt/solutions/lgpl/). At the time, I thought Qt was going to hold on to the MFC migration stuff as an incentive for the commercial license.
I had to convert a good number of files before ever being able to compile the project. Once the very basics were up and running, I slowly re-added dialogs until the functionality matched the original version. This was much harder than being able to keep your existing MFC app running as is and slowly replacing dialogs.
So, the point is... USE QTWINMIGRATE!
Oh yeah... and don't use VC6. Upgrade to something more recent.
Related
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 built with Qt 3.2.3. It's a little outdated piece of code, but it works fine except for its' embedded browser. This thing is plain old. So I want to take fresh nightly built WebKit and try to adopt it somehow. The question is - is it even possible? I am new with Qt, but had a little experience with WebKit in the recent past. It was very easy linking it to C# project, but I really don't know about Qt and C++.
Maybe there is some better solution for updating a Qt browser without touching the whole Qt?
Honestly saying I think it's easier to port an application from 3.* to latest 4/5 then compiling latest WebKit into 3.*.. there are some core differences which will be really hard to solve. Although such experiment can be possible but I just not sure it's worth it.
WebKit from SVN won't even build against Qt from a couple months ago, so I can't imagine it would be easy to get it to build against Qt 3. I would highly recommend just porting to the current version of Qt and QtWebKit.
I have some codes in Qt Creator that work properly. I need to use this codes but in win32 application in .net framework. Does anyone have any idea how can I do this? I am totally new to Qt and do not know how to use this useful codes in c++ project?
I appreciate any help in advance
I think I could not get my message across. Qt is c++ but It has some differences with the native c++ app that we use in .net framework. so I can't just copy all the codes in my project to run it properly. Can we make a dll or library to use this qt code in .net or not? and how can I do this?
I really need help. Thank you so much
For almost all cases, you do not want to mix .net and Qt in same application. It's less work to just take the logic and rewrite it for .net (managed C++ or C#).
Next best option might be to keep the parts separate and have them communicate through some IPC mechanism.
This is, because any non-trivial Qt code depends on it's own event loop, so getting the existing Qt code play nice with other event loop is always a hassle, and trying to get it play nicely when actual application is managed .net code... No, just no, unless you have a very compelling reason, are expert on both Qt and .net, and have extra time to make it work right.
I'm not sure if you don't know how to download and install Qt or how to create a Qt project in Visual Studio IDE. Try this installation guide.
Do you want to link the Qt library to your win32 c++ app? I think you should build the qt source code first with your win32 compiler. I think you could include the qt header and link the library as normal win32 library to your application after that.
This is a question I've been wondering about for a long time.
How do you create an Interface for your program ?
It seems to much of a pain to position form controls and buttons using just code.
I'm looking for something similar to Visual Basic where you can drag and drop controls onto the window. But, I want to do this for applications written in C++.
Can It be done with compilers like MinGW on Eclipse ?
If you don't want to go the Qt route you can use ResEdit which is freeware. It will produce Win32 friendly .rc files that can be built with the MinGW resource compiler and used in Win32 applications.
There are some C++ Win32 wrapper libraries available though I'm not aware of any that are nearly as mature as Qt. I believe WinxGui is a port of WTL (or at least claims to be compatible with WTL) for GCC. It doesn't look like there has been much activity on the project site for a few years however.
What you're searching for is called Qt, both Eclipse and MinGW friendly.
Check out this nice article.
Qt toolkit is written in C++. So you can use it to develop GUI. It also comes with Qt Designer and Qt Creator IDE and tools.
Qt Reference Documentation
Qt Designer Manual
Qt Creator IDE and tools
And you can use MinGW to compile the code. You don't need to download MInGW separately. When installing Qt toolkik, it asks if you want to download MInGW also, just say yes to it. It will then download the correct version of MInGW itself.
The 1.7 GB download you look at is probably the full Qt SDK. This is not just Qt and documentation, but also includes the Qt Creator IDE with the Qt Designer "Form builder", the MinGW compiler, debugger, examples, demos, and some other stuff. There's also an "online installer" that allows you to select the packages you want before downloading everything. That's probably what I'd use if I were starting from scratch on Windows.
I want to port wxwidgets opengl application that will be not library dependent.I want at least that it can be compiled without additonal libraries. I am thinking to port it to MFC or maybe WIN32.What is the most easiest?Maybe you have some other suggestion?
MFC is by far the easiest. It's also the only realistic option if you don't want to use libraries that aren't installed with Visual Studio.
You do realize, that MFC is just another library and works much like wxWidgets. The only difference is, that MFC ships with Visual C++. However if you were to compile with GCC (MinGW), then you'd have to obtain MFC somehow.
Also the whole boilerplate code for event handling and the like is rather prone to write. I say: Stick with wxWidgets, it's cross plattform, well supported and if you're scared by installing and using libraries, then you should not do programming.
Although one answer is already checked, taking the question the way it was worded, the answer is wrong. MFC is just an other dependency, although shipped with Visual Studio. You still need to ensure that the correct version is installed on the users system. The only real way to solve this problem is to go Win32 with WGL. Then you depend on nothing but OS libraries. (You probably still need to install the vcredist package though...)