Your best library for create GUI ( gtk, qt, win32 api, etc ) ?

Question

In your opinion, what is the best way to create gui in Windows ? with gtk or win32 api ?

Do you recommend GTK for windows ? Yes ? NO ? Why ?

Answer 1

If Linux (or Mac) compatibility is your concern, then Qt. Else Win32.

Answer 2

win32 api is too complicated, MFC is too annoying. I have used MFC, win32api, and Qt in windows. In my opnion, Qt is the best one. I havent tried GTK, so sorry knowing nothing about it.

Answer 3

You may want to try Winforms or WPF. If you're limited to using C/C++, you can embed .NET code using the /clr option for the compiler to embed .NET code for Winforms or WPF. Sources:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k8d11d4s(VS.71).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms754130.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.aspx
Personal experience

Answer 4

Let's see.

• Win32 is very low-level, C based, and awkward to use.
• MFC is considered obsolete.
• C# (or C++) with .NET is probably your primary choice for Windows-specific development.
• • There are even semi-limited ways to port that code to other platforms (Mono).
• Java is great for very platform-independent code that "just runs". Sorry, you said C++.
• QT is relatively platform-independent.
• GTK+, of course, although I personally don't have much experience with it.

Personally, if I do something Windows-specific, I use .NET - the tools in Visual Studio are very powerful, and it's a great all-encompassing suite.

For platform-independent stuff, I use Java, but that may not be your tool of choice. I've seen QT used a lot for that purpose.

Answer 5

I have used GTK+ in the past for a multi-platform application. I found it relatively simple to learn and use. To my mind the main advantage of GTK+ is that you will be able to port your application to other windowing systems. And the main disadvantage is that it will not look exactly like other windows applications. If you are doing cross platform work or are already very familiar with GTK+ (and don't have time to spend learning a new toolkit), I would recommend it.

Answer 6

both are for c, but there is a good wrapper for gtk (gtkmm).

gtk has its own look, so theres no skinning of ui elements on the user side(with windows styles). but i like to programm with it more.

win32, mfc, .net are mostly limited to ms visual studio, while gtk is very hard to use with vs.

you should have a look on win32, .net, gtkmm and qt. just try to write and compile a simple hello world program with them

upsides of win32:

• native windows code
• fast

downsides:

• no classes, only c with handles (very crappy)
• in my opinion very bad documented

upsides of gtk(mm):

• easy to learn/programm
• good documented

downsides:

• somehow difficult to install the development files
• no native windows look

Answer 7

For platform independent development, I would recommend Qt instead of the current GTK. GTK2 drawing was very slow compared to Qt as well as Win32. If you love native look feel, wxWidgets is made for you.

Answer 8

You really have a lot of GUI toolkits/frameworks to choose from: Qt, wxWidgets, GTK+/gtkmm, WinAPI, MFC, .NET WinForms/WPF... and those are only the popular ones.

Since you limit yourself to C++, I'd strike out .NET because C++ on .NET is intended to serve as a connection between the unmanaged and managed world. That doesn't mean you can't use it for other types of development, but given the awkward syntax and countless pitfalls I'd not go with it. Moreover, the WinForms code generator of VS puts the forms' code into the header file.. brrrr

As others have stated, WinAPI is written in C, very fast and powerful, but very low level and not easy to program/learn. MFC would be an option since it's written in C++, easier to use than WinAPI and also very powerful. However, it's pretty much obsolete (due to the presence of .NET, mostly).

I wouldn't recommend GTK+/gtkmm (a C++ wrapper for GTK+) for Windows since you don't get the native windows look, it's rather annoying to set up on your developer machine and it also drags around tons of dependencies that you have to install on the user machine. That's actually a pity because especially gtkmm has a very beautiful class hierarchy and design. Probably one of the best designed GUI libraries :)

That said, what would I recommend? Either Qt or wxWidgets. Both are written in (fairly modern) C++, actively developed, have a good library design, run multi-platform and offer lots of functionality. In any case, play around with a few of the libraries listed in the answers here and see which one lets you do the things you want to do most easily :)

Answer 9

Personally I prefer Qt, but it really depends on what kind of user interfaces you want to make.

Against Win32:

• low-level, high complexity to accomplish trivial things. You have to do EVERYTHING

• if you go this route I would recomment a book like the one from Petzold.

Pro Qt:

• Good looking GUIs

• Can change the look and feel very easily by creating stylesheets

• Signal and slots mechanism notifies you of UI events such as "button clicked" etc.

• Nice layout system

• Integrated with Visual Studio IDE

• Modern object oriented c++ code, easy to understand and use

• Qt Assistant (Very good documentation)

• Relatively liberal licensing (LGPL)

• Qt Designer - WYSIWYG design tool you can use for form design

• Comes with a wealth of other c++ functionality including XML, networking, eventloops, threading, database access, etc

Against Qt:

• Intermediary step of using MOC compiler

Pro WPF:

• if you want the new WPF capabilities of the new Windows platforms, WPF is the way to go.