Programming a GUI in C

Gabbo

Hi,
I need to create a gui using C but have no experience in this(I know some C++ but never done a GUI with it).I have programmed many gui's using java but this needs to be done using C.Does anyone know of any tutorials out there for this, I've done the usual googling but it keeps returning C++ stuff.Basically I want to start off by doing something simple like a calculator and then go from there.I'm working on windows, do i need to download some graphics packages?As i said i am completely new to this and would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.
Thanks

Eldarin

Planetsourcecode.com is a great resource. Or if you have a look in the Ebook section of www.torrentspy.com your bound to find something

king_of_inismac

Hey Gabbo,

There are two options: Win32 application using C or Microsoft Foundatation classes in C++.

If you've more experience in C, use win32, otherwise uses MFC's.

MFC's are basically wrappers for the win32 functions, so if you've experience with C++, they're the easier, and quicker development option..

best of luck,

Martin

P.S: is that you paul? if It is call up to me cos I worked on a win32 app. during the summer, if ya want some sample code...

daymobrew

GUIs in Windows are a bit daunting if you don't use MFC (written in C++).
I believe that the definitive book on Windows programming used to be "Programming Windows" by Charles Petzold. I think that it is out of print now. Fingal County Council libraries have one copy in Rathbeale, Dublin City Council doesn't have any.

Have you ever seen the 'Hello World' program for Windows written in C? I think it is about 70 lines long. Considerably shorter in MFC.
Writing it in MFC will still take a decent amount of work but the wizards in Microsoft Developer Studio (aka Microsoft Visual C++) help a lot.
I'd recommend the MFC route.

kenmc

why does it have to be in C? is this a speed requirement or a project requirement or what? you already did guis in Java, you could use JNI to get java gui to talk to a C layer if you wanted to - bit kludgy though.

Gabbo

Yeah it's a project constraint it has to be written in C, thanks for the help.

clearz

Im a java programmer myself but have recently dabbled in Win32 GUI and MFC programming and all I can is pffffffff man what a mess you can kiss goodbye to new JFrame().setVissible(true); and hello to pages of garbage code;

king_of_inismac

It's really not that bad, once you get your head around the concepts...

scojones

Why did everyone assume that the question related to win32? It could have been for GNU/Linux, in which case you'd use either GTK / QT.

clearz

sjones wrote:

Why did everyone assume that the question related to win32? It could have been for GNU/Linux, in which case you'd use either GTK / QT.

The facted that he says I'm working on windows gave me a clue. You should read the post before trying to be smart. Now you have just gone and made yourself look stupid.

scojones

You assume too much. :rolleyes:

aidan_walsh

clearz wrote:

The facted that he says I'm working on windows gave me a clue. You should read the post before trying to be smart. Now you have just gone and made yourself look stupid.

He could have been using GTK for Win32 as well

jumbo

WxWindows / WxWidgets is good. Its free. Its better than MFC.

www.wxwindows.org

jhegarty

Gabbo wrote:

Hi,
I need to create a gui using C but have no experience in this(I know some C++ but never done a GUI with it).I have programmed many gui's using java but this needs to be done using C.Does anyone know of any tutorials out there for this, I've done the usual googling but it keeps returning C++ stuff.Basically I want to start off by doing something simple like a calculator and then go from there.I'm working on windows, do i need to download some graphics packages?As i said i am completely new to this and would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.
Thanks

try a get a copy of borland builder ... will do what you want in 2 minutes....