How do I create a GUI for a windows application using C

Question

I am deciding on how to develop a GUI for a small c   win32 api project  working Visual Studio C   2008   The project will only need a few components to start off the main process so it will be very light weight  just 1 button and a text box pretty much      My question is this   I don t have experience developing GUIs on windows but I can learn easily  So  what should I use  A Visual editor  drag and drop code generationg  my preference for desktop GUI designing by far  java swing    Or should I use a speicific library  Either way  WHICH library or visual editor should I use  I heard someone mention writing the GUI in C   then calling the C   code    the thing is  that this is such a simple GUI I would find it easier to just keep it all in C    but I m open to whatever the best suggestion is

User · Answer

If you want to learn about win32  WTL http   wtl sourceforge net  is the pretty lightweight equivalent to MFC  but you have to love template to use it   If you want something simple MFC is already integrated with VS  also it has a large base of extra code and workarounds of know bugs in the net already   Also Qt is really great framework it have a nice set of tools  dialog editor  themes  and a lot of other stuff  plus your application will be ready to be cross platform  although it will require some time to get accustomed   You also have Gtk  wxWindow  and you will have no problems if you have already used it on linux

User · Answer

Just create a new MFC C   app   It s built in  pretty easy  and thousands of examples exist in the world     Plus  you can design your dialog box right in Visual Studio  give them variable names  and 90  of the code is generated for you

User · Answer

I strongly advise against using plain Win32 because it s pretty hard to make it work OK in all situations  it s pretty dull and tedious work and the Common Controls library isn t that complete  Also  most of the work has been done for you    Every time I end up doing plain Win32 I have to spent at least a couple of hours on the most trivial tasks because I have to look up all the parameters  flags  functions  macros and figure out how to hook them up properly  I d generally prefer a simple drag-and-drop don t-make-me-use-my-brains type of solution and just slam the thing together in 2 minutes   As a lightweight toolkit I d suggest omgui which has a clean and pretty API  It doesn t  however  come with any tools   If you need tool support  you ll probably end up wanting to go for either MFC  resource editor built into Visual Studio  or Qt  I don t know if wxWidgets has any tools  but I presume it has   Edit  David Citron mentions that apparently the resource editor in Visual Studio generates Win32 compatible resource files  so that s probably the preferred way to do things if you wanted to keep things simple

User · Answer

If you re doing a very simple GUI and you re already using Visual Studio then it may make sense to just go with MFC   You can just use the Visual Studio MFC wizard to create a dialog based application  drop two controls on it and away you go   MFC is dated and has its fair share of annoyances  but it will certainly do the job for you if you re just talking about a button and a text box   I don t have any experience with Qt  so I can t compare the two

User · Answer

I have used wxWidgets for small project and I loved it  Qt is another good choice but for commercial use you would probably need to buy a licence  If you write in C   don t use Win32 API as you will end up making it object oriented  This is not easy and time consuming  Also Win32 API has too many macros and feels over complicated for what it offers

User · Answer

If you re doing a very simple GUI and you re already using Visual Studio then it may make sense to just go with MFC   You can just use the Visual Studio MFC wizard to create a dialog based application  drop two controls on it and away you go   MFC is dated and has its fair share of annoyances  but it will certainly do the job for you if you re just talking about a button and a text box   I don t have any experience with Qt  so I can t compare the two

User · Answer

I strongly advise against using plain Win32 because it s pretty hard to make it work OK in all situations  it s pretty dull and tedious work and the Common Controls library isn t that complete  Also  most of the work has been done for you    Every time I end up doing plain Win32 I have to spent at least a couple of hours on the most trivial tasks because I have to look up all the parameters  flags  functions  macros and figure out how to hook them up properly  I d generally prefer a simple drag-and-drop don t-make-me-use-my-brains type of solution and just slam the thing together in 2 minutes   As a lightweight toolkit I d suggest omgui which has a clean and pretty API  It doesn t  however  come with any tools   If you need tool support  you ll probably end up wanting to go for either MFC  resource editor built into Visual Studio  or Qt  I don t know if wxWidgets has any tools  but I presume it has   Edit  David Citron mentions that apparently the resource editor in Visual Studio generates Win32 compatible resource files  so that s probably the preferred way to do things if you wanted to keep things simple

User · Answer

Qt from Nokia is definitely the way to go   Another option is gtk  but Qt is better supported and documented   Either way  they are both free   And both of them are widely used and well known so it is easy to find answers to your questions

User · Answer

by far the best C   GUI library out there is Qt  it s comprehensive  easy to learn  really fast  and multiplattform   ah  it recently got a LGPL license  so now you can download it for free and include on commercial programs

User · Answer

If you want to learn about win32  WTL http   wtl sourceforge net  is the pretty lightweight equivalent to MFC  but you have to love template to use it   If you want something simple MFC is already integrated with VS  also it has a large base of extra code and workarounds of know bugs in the net already   Also Qt is really great framework it have a nice set of tools  dialog editor  themes  and a lot of other stuff  plus your application will be ready to be cross platform  although it will require some time to get accustomed   You also have Gtk  wxWindow  and you will have no problems if you have already used it on linux

User · Answer

I strongly advise against using plain Win32 because it s pretty hard to make it work OK in all situations  it s pretty dull and tedious work and the Common Controls library isn t that complete  Also  most of the work has been done for you    Every time I end up doing plain Win32 I have to spent at least a couple of hours on the most trivial tasks because I have to look up all the parameters  flags  functions  macros and figure out how to hook them up properly  I d generally prefer a simple drag-and-drop don t-make-me-use-my-brains type of solution and just slam the thing together in 2 minutes   As a lightweight toolkit I d suggest omgui which has a clean and pretty API  It doesn t  however  come with any tools   If you need tool support  you ll probably end up wanting to go for either MFC  resource editor built into Visual Studio  or Qt  I don t know if wxWidgets has any tools  but I presume it has   Edit  David Citron mentions that apparently the resource editor in Visual Studio generates Win32 compatible resource files  so that s probably the preferred way to do things if you wanted to keep things simple

User · Answer

Qt from Nokia is definitely the way to go   Another option is gtk  but Qt is better supported and documented   Either way  they are both free   And both of them are widely used and well known so it is easy to find answers to your questions

User · Answer

I have used wxWidgets for small project and I loved it  Qt is another good choice but for commercial use you would probably need to buy a licence  If you write in C   don t use Win32 API as you will end up making it object oriented  This is not easy and time consuming  Also Win32 API has too many macros and feels over complicated for what it offers

User · Answer

For such a simple application even MFC would be overkill  If don t want to introduce another dependency just do it in plain vanilla Win32  It will be easier for you if you have never used MFC   Check out the classic  Programming Windows  by Charles Petzold or some online tutorial   e g  http   www winprog org tutorial   and you are ready to go

User · Answer

A simple  window  with some text and a button is just a MessageBox  You can create them with a single function call  you don t need any library whatsoever

User · Answer

Avoid QT  for noobs  or any useless libraries  absurd for a such basic thing   Just use the VS Win32 api Wizard  ad the button and text box   and that s all    In 25 seconds

User · Answer

I have used wxWidgets for small project and I loved it  Qt is another good choice but for commercial use you would probably need to buy a licence  If you write in C   don t use Win32 API as you will end up making it object oriented  This is not easy and time consuming  Also Win32 API has too many macros and feels over complicated for what it offers

User · Answer

Just create a new MFC C   app   It s built in  pretty easy  and thousands of examples exist in the world     Plus  you can design your dialog box right in Visual Studio  give them variable names  and 90  of the code is generated for you

User · Answer

If you want to learn about win32  WTL http   wtl sourceforge net  is the pretty lightweight equivalent to MFC  but you have to love template to use it   If you want something simple MFC is already integrated with VS  also it has a large base of extra code and workarounds of know bugs in the net already   Also Qt is really great framework it have a nice set of tools  dialog editor  themes  and a lot of other stuff  plus your application will be ready to be cross platform  although it will require some time to get accustomed   You also have Gtk  wxWindow  and you will have no problems if you have already used it on linux

User · Answer

If you re doing a very simple GUI and you re already using Visual Studio then it may make sense to just go with MFC   You can just use the Visual Studio MFC wizard to create a dialog based application  drop two controls on it and away you go   MFC is dated and has its fair share of annoyances  but it will certainly do the job for you if you re just talking about a button and a text box   I don t have any experience with Qt  so I can t compare the two

User · Answer

If you want to learn about win32  WTL http   wtl sourceforge net  is the pretty lightweight equivalent to MFC  but you have to love template to use it   If you want something simple MFC is already integrated with VS  also it has a large base of extra code and workarounds of know bugs in the net already   Also Qt is really great framework it have a nice set of tools  dialog editor  themes  and a lot of other stuff  plus your application will be ready to be cross platform  although it will require some time to get accustomed   You also have Gtk  wxWindow  and you will have no problems if you have already used it on linux

User · Answer

A simple  window  with some text and a button is just a MessageBox  You can create them with a single function call  you don t need any library whatsoever

User · Answer

Qt from Nokia is definitely the way to go   Another option is gtk  but Qt is better supported and documented   Either way  they are both free   And both of them are widely used and well known so it is easy to find answers to your questions

User · Answer

I strongly prefer simply using Microsoft Visual Studio and writing a native Win32 app   For a GUI as simple as the one that you describe  you could simply create a Dialog Box and use it as your main application window  The default application created by the Win32 Project wizard in Visual Studio actually pops a window  so you can replace that window with your Dialog Box and replace the WndProc with a similar  but simpler  DialogProc   The question  then  is one of tools and cost  The Express Edition of Visual C   does everything you want except actually create the Dialog Template resource  For this  you could either code it in the RC file by hand or in memory by hand  Related SO question  Windows API Dialogs without using resource files   Or you could try one of the free resource editors that others have recommended   Finally  the Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition is a costlier option but gives you an integrated resource editor

User · Answer

Avoid QT  for noobs  or any useless libraries  absurd for a such basic thing   Just use the VS Win32 api Wizard  ad the button and text box   and that s all    In 25 seconds

User · Answer

Avoid QT  for noobs  or any useless libraries  absurd for a such basic thing   Just use the VS Win32 api Wizard  ad the button and text box   and that s all    In 25 seconds

User · Answer

For such a simple application even MFC would be overkill  If don t want to introduce another dependency just do it in plain vanilla Win32  It will be easier for you if you have never used MFC   Check out the classic  Programming Windows  by Charles Petzold or some online tutorial   e g  http   www winprog org tutorial   and you are ready to go

User · Answer

by far the best C   GUI library out there is Qt  it s comprehensive  easy to learn  really fast  and multiplattform   ah  it recently got a LGPL license  so now you can download it for free and include on commercial programs

User · Answer

If you re doing a very simple GUI and you re already using Visual Studio then it may make sense to just go with MFC   You can just use the Visual Studio MFC wizard to create a dialog based application  drop two controls on it and away you go   MFC is dated and has its fair share of annoyances  but it will certainly do the job for you if you re just talking about a button and a text box   I don t have any experience with Qt  so I can t compare the two

User · Answer

A simple  window  with some text and a button is just a MessageBox  You can create them with a single function call  you don t need any library whatsoever

User · Answer

I strongly prefer simply using Microsoft Visual Studio and writing a native Win32 app   For a GUI as simple as the one that you describe  you could simply create a Dialog Box and use it as your main application window  The default application created by the Win32 Project wizard in Visual Studio actually pops a window  so you can replace that window with your Dialog Box and replace the WndProc with a similar  but simpler  DialogProc   The question  then  is one of tools and cost  The Express Edition of Visual C   does everything you want except actually create the Dialog Template resource  For this  you could either code it in the RC file by hand or in memory by hand  Related SO question  Windows API Dialogs without using resource files   Or you could try one of the free resource editors that others have recommended   Finally  the Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition is a costlier option but gives you an integrated resource editor

User · Answer

I strongly advise against using plain Win32 because it s pretty hard to make it work OK in all situations  it s pretty dull and tedious work and the Common Controls library isn t that complete  Also  most of the work has been done for you    Every time I end up doing plain Win32 I have to spent at least a couple of hours on the most trivial tasks because I have to look up all the parameters  flags  functions  macros and figure out how to hook them up properly  I d generally prefer a simple drag-and-drop don t-make-me-use-my-brains type of solution and just slam the thing together in 2 minutes   As a lightweight toolkit I d suggest omgui which has a clean and pretty API  It doesn t  however  come with any tools   If you need tool support  you ll probably end up wanting to go for either MFC  resource editor built into Visual Studio  or Qt  I don t know if wxWidgets has any tools  but I presume it has   Edit  David Citron mentions that apparently the resource editor in Visual Studio generates Win32 compatible resource files  so that s probably the preferred way to do things if you wanted to keep things simple

User · Answer

I strongly prefer simply using Microsoft Visual Studio and writing a native Win32 app   For a GUI as simple as the one that you describe  you could simply create a Dialog Box and use it as your main application window  The default application created by the Win32 Project wizard in Visual Studio actually pops a window  so you can replace that window with your Dialog Box and replace the WndProc with a similar  but simpler  DialogProc   The question  then  is one of tools and cost  The Express Edition of Visual C   does everything you want except actually create the Dialog Template resource  For this  you could either code it in the RC file by hand or in memory by hand  Related SO question  Windows API Dialogs without using resource files   Or you could try one of the free resource editors that others have recommended   Finally  the Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition is a costlier option but gives you an integrated resource editor

User · Answer

For such a simple application even MFC would be overkill  If don t want to introduce another dependency just do it in plain vanilla Win32  It will be easier for you if you have never used MFC   Check out the classic  Programming Windows  by Charles Petzold or some online tutorial   e g  http   www winprog org tutorial   and you are ready to go

User · Answer

by far the best C   GUI library out there is Qt  it s comprehensive  easy to learn  really fast  and multiplattform   ah  it recently got a LGPL license  so now you can download it for free and include on commercial programs

User · Answer

I have used wxWidgets for small project and I loved it  Qt is another good choice but for commercial use you would probably need to buy a licence  If you write in C   don t use Win32 API as you will end up making it object oriented  This is not easy and time consuming  Also Win32 API has too many macros and feels over complicated for what it offers

User · Answer

by far the best C   GUI library out there is Qt  it s comprehensive  easy to learn  really fast  and multiplattform   ah  it recently got a LGPL license  so now you can download it for free and include on commercial programs

User · Answer

Qt from Nokia is definitely the way to go   Another option is gtk  but Qt is better supported and documented   Either way  they are both free   And both of them are widely used and well known so it is easy to find answers to your questions

User · Answer

A simple  window  with some text and a button is just a MessageBox  You can create them with a single function call  you don t need any library whatsoever

User · Answer

I strongly prefer simply using Microsoft Visual Studio and writing a native Win32 app   For a GUI as simple as the one that you describe  you could simply create a Dialog Box and use it as your main application window  The default application created by the Win32 Project wizard in Visual Studio actually pops a window  so you can replace that window with your Dialog Box and replace the WndProc with a similar  but simpler  DialogProc   The question  then  is one of tools and cost  The Express Edition of Visual C   does everything you want except actually create the Dialog Template resource  For this  you could either code it in the RC file by hand or in memory by hand  Related SO question  Windows API Dialogs without using resource files   Or you could try one of the free resource editors that others have recommended   Finally  the Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition is a costlier option but gives you an integrated resource editor

User · Answer

For such a simple application even MFC would be overkill  If don t want to introduce another dependency just do it in plain vanilla Win32  It will be easier for you if you have never used MFC   Check out the classic  Programming Windows  by Charles Petzold or some online tutorial   e g  http   www winprog org tutorial   and you are ready to go

User · Answer

Just create a new MFC C   app   It s built in  pretty easy  and thousands of examples exist in the world     Plus  you can design your dialog box right in Visual Studio  give them variable names  and 90  of the code is generated for you

User · Answer

Avoid QT  for noobs  or any useless libraries  absurd for a such basic thing   Just use the VS Win32 api Wizard  ad the button and text box   and that s all    In 25 seconds

User · Answer

Just create a new MFC C   app   It s built in  pretty easy  and thousands of examples exist in the world     Plus  you can design your dialog box right in Visual Studio  give them variable names  and 90  of the code is generated for you

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