Which Windows GUI system should I choose with C++?

Question

There are now so many ways to write windows apps, win32, MFC, ATL, .NET, WinForms, and probably some others that I don't know of. Which one should I choose? I'd like one that works on a fresh install of Vista, and is modern and easy to use.

Answer 1

I highly recommend Qt. It's cross-platform, very easy to use and LGPL licensed.

Answer 2

Short answer... It depends.

Whats your skillset/background? Why are you developing a desktop app? Is it for work or as an experiment for you to learn something new? Will there be multiple other developers working on it and whats they're skillset?

My personal preference would be winforms because that's what I spend most time coding in (in C#). They're very quick to put together and the VS IDE is very quick & stable for building the UI elements of your application. And you can publish/deploy them using Click Once which allows easy updating of the clients when you make changes & updates.

Alternatively, you might want to look at WPF which is the new Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.5. This will allow you to leverage a newer "shinier" UI experience for desktop applications.

Answer 3

Straight up Win32 is getting better with the Scenic Ribbon. Will work on Vista and Windows 7.

Answer 4

If you are amateur with C++ you'll have much easier time learning WinForms than any of the native Visual C++ frameworks (Win32, MVC, etc.). WPF will give you best versatily. It's a bit harder to master than WinForms but managed and so keeps you away from the nasty Win32 stuff.

The native frameworks are good mainly if you want to crunch the last bits of performance or need to keep the footprint small for stuff such as shell extensions.

I'd recommend checking WinForms at least first to get some quick understanding of the principles. If WinForms doesn't suit you, you can then move to either C++ if you feel you need more low level control or WPF if you wish more shiny features like skinning and theming.

Edit:
Though if you have a look at WPF, remember that fresh Vista contains only .Net 3.0 so 3.5 and 3.5 SP1 features require a separate runtime installation.

Answer 5

I'm probably biased (aren't we all?), but since your question states you're interested in Windows development and you want a modern and easy to use GUI framework that's works with Vista out of the box, the obvious answer is .NET WinForms.

Answer 6

I personally prefer gtkmm. Although it doesn't look as good as Qt or the native frameworks on Windows, I think the API is the most transparent among all frameworks I tried. It feels very OOish, and is very easy to learn. You can easily create GUI layouts with Glade, but you can also create decent designs with nothing but code. In this regard, gtkmm is similar to Java GUI programming.

Answer 7

Hi!

actuallly it's very easy to start with Qt - you get a complete SDK incl. a very nice IDE as a simple package and a smart integration into VisualStudio.

Plus the LGPL licensing which allows anybody to write opensource and closed source/commercial apps without paying any fees - the commercial support/licenses are optionally!

The biggest advantage of Qt is the very easy to learn and very very clean C++ API, which can do more than just building GUI apps (it supports low leven networking and file io etc.).

Best regards, Chris

Answer 8

I would recommend WxWidgets. The API is easy to understand; it is very well documented with samples; and it is cross-platform. If you are programming an application that is going to have any a large number of users, you will eventually want to have the option of running it on a different operating system. By choosing a Microsoft only API you will permanently put yourself into the Microsoft corner. Getting out will require a serious refactoring of your software which will require that you learn yet another API. Take my advice and start with a cross-platform API - it will save you a lot of grief in the future.

Answer 9

I would recommend C++Builder 2009, which can create applications that work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Answer 10

If you go the Microsoft route, be sure to check which frameworks they are putting the most muscle behind lately. For instance, MFC is an older framework that should NOT be used for new development because MS isn't putting any time into it, and the marketplace for add-on MFC components has dried up and blown away.

Basically, when choosing MS backed technology, make sure you pick one that isn't already on the outs.

Answer 11

So you're a student with only PHP knowledge? Well before even considering a GUI you'll need to come up to speed in a proper language. I would suggest C# as you are already used to curly braces and you want to program Windows. WinForms is part of .Net, not a separate thing. Just download Visual Studio 2008 Express and you're up and running. By the way, GUI programming can be hard in any language, especially after you move past the stage of toy programs to real apps.

If you knew C++ to a higher degree I would have suggested Qt. Simply because the new LGPL licensing removes the final impediment. It's also cross-platform, high quality, high performance and now has the financial backing of a huge company (Nokia) to ensure further development.