How can I do GUI programming in C

Question

I want to do Graphics programming in C  I had searched a lot about the compiler that provides a rich set of functions for doing GUI programming in C  but I couldn t find anything   Basically I want to draw buttons and then accept the choice from the user and take an appropriate action  It would be helpful if you can suggest a C compiler  or a library that I can add to my compiler  I am working on the Windows operating system   Presently  I am using TURBO C compiler that does not support direct methods for creating buttons  Any help would be appreciated

User · Answer

C is more of a hardware programming language  there are easy GUI builders for C  GTK  Glade  etc  The problem is making a program in C that is the easy part  making a GUI that is a easy part  the hard part is to combine both  to interface between your program and the GUI is a headache  and different GUI use different ways  some threw global variables  some use slots  It would be nice to have a GUI builder that would bind easily your C program variables  and outputs  CLI programming is easy when you overcome memory allocation and pointers  GUI you can use a IDE that uses drag and drop  But all around I think it could be simpler

User · Answer

Use win APIs in your main function    RegisterClassEx   note  you have to provide a pointer to a function  usually called WndProc  which handles windows messages such as WM CREATE  WM COMMAND etc CreateWindowEx   ShowWindow   UpdateWindow     Then write another function which handles win s messages  mentioned in  1   When you receive the message WM CREATE you have to call CreateWindow    The class is what control is that window  for example  edit  is a text box and  button  is a   button     You have to specify an ID for each control  of your choice but unique among all   CreateWindow   returns a handle to that control  which needs to be memorized  When the user clicks on a control you receive the WM COMMAND message with the ID of that control  Here you can handle that event  You might find useful SetWindowText   and GetWindowText   which allows you to set get the text of any control  You will need only the win32 SDK  You can get it here

User · Answer

A C compiler itself won t provide you with GUI functionality  but there are plenty of libraries for that sort of thing  The most popular is probably GTK   but it may be a little too complicated if you are just starting out and want to quickly get a GUI up and running   For something a little simpler  I would recommend IUP  With it  you can use a simple GUI definition language called LED to layout controls  but you can do it with pure C  if you want to

User · Answer

Windows API and Windows SDK if you want to build everything yourself  or  Windows API and Visual C Express  Get the 2008 edition  This is a full blown IDE and a remarkable piece of software by Microsoft for Windows development   All operating systems are written in C  So  any application  console GUI you write in C is the standard way of writing for the operating system

User · Answer

The most famous library to create some GUI in C language is certainly GTK   With this library you can easily create some buttons  for your example   When a user clicks on the button  a signal is emitted and you can write a handler to do some actions

User · Answer

This is guaranteed to have nothing to do with the compiler  All compilers do is compile the code that they are given  What you re looking for is a GUI library  which you can write code against using any compiler that you want   Of course  that being said  your first order of business should be to ditch Turbo C  That compiler is about 20 years old and continuing to use it isn t doing you any favors  You can t write modern GUI applications  as it will only produce 16-bit code  All modern operating systems are 32-bit  and many are now 64-bit  It s also worth noting that 64-bit editions of Windows will not run 16-bit applications natively  You ll need an emulator for that  it s not really going to engender much feeling of accomplishment if you can only write apps that work in a DOS emulator   -   Microsoft s Visual Studio Express C   is available as a free download  It includes the same compiler available in the full version of the suite  The C   package also compiles pure C code   And since you re working in Windows  the Windows API is a natural choice  It allows you to write native Windows applications that have access to the full set of GUI controls  You ll find a nice tutorial here on writing WinAPI applications in C  If you choose to go with Visual Studio  it also includes boilerplate code for a blank WinAPI application that will get you up and running quickly   If you really care about learning to do this  Charles Petzold s Programming Windows is the canonical resource of the subject  and definitely worth a read  The entire Windows API was written in C  and it s entirely possible to write full-featured Windows applications in C  You don t need no stinkin  C     That s the way I d do it  at least  As the other answers suggest  GTK is also an option  But the applications it generates are just downright horrible-looking on Windows     EDIT  Oh dear    It looks like you re not alone in wanting to write  GUI  applications using an antiquated compiler  A Google search turns up the following library  TurboGUI  A GUI Framework for Turbo C C      nbsp   If you re another one of those poor people stuck in the hopelessly out-of-date Indian school system and forced to use Turbo C to complete your education  this might be an option  I m loathe to recommend it  as learning to work around its limitations will be completely useless to you once you graduate  but apparently it s out there for you if you re interested

[c] How can I do GUI programming in C?

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