Producing software with c++

[jessehk]

Can anyone explain how I would make a visual interface to use with c++ to create desktop applications and how I would go about doing this. I am currently in the process of learning it from Lynda.com and I am just curious how I would do this.

[fiveworlds]

That's a very broad question. On windows, linux or mac?

[Sensei]

Can anyone explain how I would make a visual interface to use with c++ to create desktop applications and how I would go about doing this. I am currently in the process of learning it from Lynda.com and I am just curious how I would do this.

 

Assuming you're interested in writing applications for Windows/Intel using Visual Studio Express/Visual Studio Community, https://www.visualstudio.com/

please watch this video tutorial:

 

This tutorial is for C#, but should be pretty easily adopted to C++ (.NET Framework is using Managed C++ version)

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa712574(v=vs.71).aspx

 

ps. Fiveworlds asked the right question, because you didn't specify which platform you're interested in.

[jessehk]

That's a very broad question. On windows, linux or mac?

I work with visual studio on linux

[fiveworlds]

You could use GTK+ for example.

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

/* This is a callback function. The data arguments are ignored
 * in this example. More on callbacks below. */
static void hello( GtkWidget *widget,
                   gpointer   data )
{
    g_print ("My first GUI\n");
}

static gboolean delete_event( GtkWidget *widget,
                              GdkEvent  *event,
                              gpointer   data )
{
    /* If you return FALSE in the "delete-event" signal handler,
     * GTK will emit the "destroy" signal. Returning TRUE means
     * you don't want the window to be destroyed.
     * This is useful for popping up 'are you sure you want to quit?'
     * type dialogs. */

    g_print ("delete event occurred\n");

    /* Change TRUE to FALSE and the main window will be destroyed with
     * a "delete-event". */

    return TRUE;
}

/* Another callback */
static void destroy( GtkWidget *widget,
                     gpointer   data )
{
    gtk_main_quit ();
}

int main( int   argc,
          char *argv[] )
{
    /* GtkWidget is the storage type for widgets */
    GtkWidget *window;
    GtkWidget *button;
    
    /* This is called in all GTK applications. Arguments are parsed
     * from the command line and are returned to the application. */
    gtk_init (&argc, &argv);
    
    /* create a new window */
    window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
    
    /* When the window is given the "delete-event" signal (this is given
     * by the window manager, usually by the "close" option, or on the
     * titlebar), we ask it to call the delete_event () function
     * as defined above. The data passed to the callback
     * function is NULL and is ignored in the callback function. */
    g_signal_connect (window, "delete-event",
              G_CALLBACK (delete_event), NULL);
    
    /* Here we connect the "destroy" event to a signal handler.  
     * This event occurs when we call gtk_widget_destroy() on the window,
     * or if we return FALSE in the "delete-event" callback. */
    g_signal_connect (window, "destroy",
              G_CALLBACK (destroy), NULL);
    
    /* Sets the border width of the window. */
    gtk_container_set_border_width (GTK_CONTAINER (window), 10);
    
    /* Creates a new button with the label "Hello World". */
    button = gtk_button_new_with_label ("Hello World");
    
    /* When the button receives the "clicked" signal, it will call the
     * function hello() passing it NULL as its argument.  The hello()
     * function is defined above. */
    g_signal_connect (button, "clicked",
              G_CALLBACK (hello), NULL);
    
    /* This will cause the window to be destroyed by calling
     * gtk_widget_destroy(window) when "clicked".  Again, the destroy
     * signal could come from here, or the window manager. */
    g_signal_connect_swapped (button, "clicked",
                  G_CALLBACK (gtk_widget_destroy),
                              window);
    
    /* This packs the button into the window (a gtk container). */
    gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (window), button);
    
    /* The final step is to display this newly created widget. */
    gtk_widget_show (button);
    
    /* and the window */
    gtk_widget_show (window);
    
    /* All GTK applications must have a gtk_main(). Control ends here
     * and waits for an event to occur (like a key press or
     * mouse event). */
    gtk_main ();
    
    return 0;
}

You will need to write a program to get the .json to work correctly though since it doesn't seem to use `pkg-config` properly.

Edited May 6, 2017 by fiveworlds

[Sensei]

Or you could try Qt for Linux
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/linux.html

Qt Creator, with GUI builder/designer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_Creator Edited May 6, 2017 by Sensei

[Manticore]

I mostly use FLTK (partly because it's used in Bjarne Stroustrup's books which are the standard for college courses and partly because I find it much simpler to use than GTK or QT)