VC++

i have a c++ console program i wrote

but i am wanting to make a GUI program

started a windows form app, and really dont know how to go from there!

i have a vellman k8055 relay board, and a touchscreen computer running windows xp

i am wanting to make a gui that has 8 "lights" (prefer jpg or bmp)

when each relay is on, the corrisponding "light" is green, when off is red.

when i click (touch) the light, it toggles the light, and sends the command to turn on or off the light....

any insite to where i go to get the gui to work, at the moment WITHOUT the board and dll?

not looking for someone to do this for me, but guide me to where i go, seeing i know c and c++ but not the coding for windows form application.

thanks

ok step one i am trying to find. Basically a keypad on my form. buttons numbered 0-9, and a toggle button...

trying to find a way to click on 1, and it places a 1 in the text box, then click 2, and the text box says 12

then when click "toggle" it takes what is in the text box, and sends it to lets say X, then clears text box, and uses the X

Probably best to start by going through this trivial Windows Forms tutorial: Creating a Windows Forms Application By Using the .NET Framework (C++)

Just to familiarise yourself with the GUI and controls.

Each control (e.g. button or picture) on your form can have a number of functions associated with the various events it can trigger. E.g. something to do on mouse over, click, double click....

For your first question - I think using PictureBox controls to display a red or green picture and switch between images when clicked will work.
Interfacing to your DLL could be more of a hassle though -- Windows Forms are Managed code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, whereas your DLL is presumably not. Often you have to do some battle with managed/unmanaged types to get everything looking sensible. Recommend googling around for calling an unmanaged DLL from managed Windows Forms code -- just to make sure you do everything you need to.

For your second -- if you, for example, created the text box in the GUI then named the text box "textbox1"m you should be able to find that textbox1 object in the source code for Form1.h. Then you'd add an onClick handler to each button which altered the text box. Something like (this is a complete random guess, but it's the right sort of thing):

Code:

---

textbox1->Text = textbox1->Text + this->Text;

---

Thank you, got the 1 and 2 keys going with this

Code:

---

textBox1->Text = textBox1->Text +"1";

---

Next step would be to take the "enter" button click to take the text in the textbox, and set it to X (an int)

but i think that will be another day!!!

going to finish my 0-9 then close it!

thank you for the start!

Great :) You're very welcome!

Just to correct myself: this was partly nonsense:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by smokeyangel

Code:

---

textbox1->Text = textbox1->Text + this->Text;

---

---

As you can no doubt see in your code, the button onClick function is just a function in the form -- onClick isn't a member of the Button class, so me suggesting using the this pointer was wrong. If you scroll around you'll probably see the generated code that ties the events and handling functions together.

If you wanted to avoid writing 10 separate functions, you should be able to get at the button that was clicked by examining the sender argument:

Code:

---

void button1_Click( Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ /*e*/ )
{
    Button^ thisbutton = safe_cast<Button^>(sender);

---

Then you could get the value of the button from button's "Text" property, so you could use one handler for all of your button clicks.

Glad you've managed to get started. The reference docs for the controls (MSDN) are pretty decent, once you've gotten over the initial hurdle.

couldnt sleep!!! so i made an image of a red light, and one of a green light, made the green not visible, and red visible, stacked one on top of the other, then a button under the lights.

then added

Code:

---

   
private: System::Void button1_Click(System::Object^  sender, System::EventArgs^  e) {
if (pictureBox1->Visible == true)
        {
            pictureBox1->Visible = false;
            pictureBox2->Visible = true;
            SetDigitalChannel(1);
        }
  else
        {
            pictureBox2->Visible = false;
            pictureBox1->Visible = true;
            ClearDigitalChannel(1);
        }
}


---

so the button toggles the relay on and off, while having the green light visible for on, and red for off!!!

GREAT Start already!!!

Oh for adding the coding for the DLL, i just copied there Demo program sections, including the "search for card" grouping!

if you want, ill post the form1.h file for you to look at.

Just to add...
Windows Form is for C++/CLI, which is not C++. You may get better help if you post these kinds of threads in the future in TechTalk instead of here since this covers only native C++.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elysia

Just to add...
Windows Form is for C++/CLI, which is not C++. You may get better help if you post these kinds of threads in the future in TechTalk instead of here since this covers only native C++.

---

um....huh???

VC++ set everything up for me, all i did was add to the form!!!

Like I said, forms are not C++. Visual Studio is an IDE from Microsoft that compresses all their technologies into one product. You are not using C++, you are using C++/CLI.

Elysia you are not a moderator yet. :p

ok got it, question i have also, can i make a win32 gui program from just c++ or C? cause i would like that MUCH better then this vc++ crap, and easier for touch screen then console

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whiteflags

Elysia you are not a moderator yet. :p

---

Meh. If I were a moderator, I would move this and just say "Don't do this, or I'll ban you" :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crossfire

ok got it, question i have also, can i make a win32 gui program from just c++ or C? cause i would like that MUCH better then this vc++ crap, and easier for touch screen then console

---

Yes, it's possible.
Easier or not is debatable. Regardless of what you choose, you need to learn how to use it properly.
Anyway, a popular GUI Framework for native C++ is Qt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elysia

Meh. If I were a moderator, I would move this and just say "Don't do this, or I'll ban you" :p

---

I look forward to you getting evicted for such casual abuse.

well i made my first gui program in c!!!

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
MessageBox(NULL, "Goodbye, cruel world!", "Note", MB_OK);
return 0;
}

---

ps now that i know forms are NOT c++ as i thought it was, you can move this to where it needs to go!!!

thanks!

o_O
Nah, I wouldn't do that. I would only do that in my nightmares.
I would only move the thread, and the rest would be the same as now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crossfire

well i made my first gui program in c!!!

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
MessageBox(NULL, "Goodbye, cruel world!", "Note", MB_OK);
return 0;
}

---

ps now that i know forms are NOT c++ as i thought it was, you can move this to where it needs to go!!!

thanks!

---

Now, this raises eyebrowns.
Win32 is hardly a good technology to use. I strongly suggest you use a GUI Framework.
But why are you using C all of a sudden?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crossfire

ok got it, question i have also, can i make a win32 gui program from just c++ or C? cause i would like that MUCH better then this vc++ crap, and easier for touch screen then console

---

I'd also recommend Qt. I haven't used it for years - but my memories of it are that it had a slightly steeper initial learning curve than Windows Forms (have to understand a bit more and have less autogenerated for you). But the more I worked with it the more comfortable I was: whereas with Windows Forms I seem to get more perplexed and confused every time I use them. There's a point when they seem to just stop making much sense. The "it's not C++" fact gets more and more glaring too.

My views might be coloured by using Windows Forms mostly for hacky prototypes -- so I haven't really taken the time to learn how it's meant to all fit together. I just keep bashing it until it behaves, which C++/CLI makes so fun and not at all frustrating :mad:

using C because i am stronger in C then C++ at the moment, as i been tutoring C for a while now, and have done very little in c++ in the last 4 years.

and yeah the windows form app i made, i did just that, "I just keep bashing it until it behaves" lol

basically i am taking a circuit i made for the parallel port (8 data outs + 2 control outs) and instead of using the parallel port (as everything after win me BLOCKED direct writes to the port unless you install a modified driver, and of course parallel ports are getting scarse, and usb to parallel dont work as expected)

i replaced the parallel port with the vellman 8055 usb "adapter". using the 8 data outs and 2 analog outs.

the program/circuit uses a "6 pass write" to send data. send one byte(data), trigger flip flop, send i byte (steering) trigger flipflop, then 1 of 320 relays are on.

well my program was running in console in c++, but now that i am using a toughbook with the vellman board as the center of the controller, i want to be able to "see" all 320 "lights" and click the light or a button underneith to switch them. vc++ seemed the way to go, untill i discovered forms ISNT C++!!! so in short falling back to C like i said, becuase i know it better!

is there another route that would be better?? like actually using a C++ GUI, over a C GUI?

my orig program i was already using functions from the api.

Code:

---

void GetWindowSize()
  {
  CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
  if (GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(
        GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE ),
        &csbi
        ))
    {
    lines  = csbi.srWindow.Bottom -csbi.srWindow.Top  +1;
    columns = csbi.srWindow.Right  -csbi.srWindow.Left +1;
    }
  else lines = columns = 0;
  }
void SetWindowSize(int lines,int columns )
  {
  CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
  if (GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(
        GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE ),
        &csbi
        ))
    {
    // Make sure the new size isn't too big
    if (lines  > csbi.dwSize.Y) lines  = csbi.dwSize.Y;
    if (columns > csbi.dwSize.X) columns = csbi.dwSize.X;
    // Adjust window origin if necessary
    if ((csbi.srWindow.Top  +lines)  > csbi.dwSize.Y) csbi.srWindow.Top  = csbi.dwSize.Y -lines  -1;
    if ((csbi.srWindow.Left +columns) > csbi.dwSize.Y) csbi.srWindow.Left = csbi.dwSize.X -columns -1;
    // Calculate new size
    csbi.srWindow.Bottom = csbi.srWindow.Top  +lines  -1;
    csbi.srWindow.Right  = csbi.srWindow.Left +columns -1;
    SetConsoleWindowInfo(
      GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE ),
      true,
      &csbi.srWindow
      );
    }
  }
 
 

void GetLocation()
{
    HANDLE hStdout = GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE );
    CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO ScreenBufferInfo = { 0 };
    GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo( hStdout, &ScreenBufferInfo );
    X=ScreenBufferInfo.dwCursorPosition.X;
    Y=ScreenBufferInfo.dwCursorPosition.Y;
}
void GotoXY( short x, short y )
{
    HANDLE hStdout = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE) ;
    COORD position = { x, y } ;
   
    SetConsoleCursorPosition( hStdout, position ) ;
}

---

I find it kind of heartbreaking that Elysia caused you to second guess yourself. It is true that you're using CLI, but when Elysia says it "isn't C++" he means it isn't standard C++. Sad fact is that no GUI framework is standard. So you have to make a choice anyway and you might as well go with what works where you want the program to run, and what you're comfortable with doing.

The good part of a C++ GUI framework is the high probability that it is designed with OOP principles in mind. It may just be easier to work with, it depends on the person.

well i would like to continue to use C++ (or my working forms), as that means i dont have to port my programming over to something else!!!

what IDE/Compiler would you recommend for gui programming? C/C++ hopefully

There is nothing wrong with Visual Studio. Neither is there anything wrong with using CLI, as long as you know it's basically a form of vendor lock in. Meaning that you are going to have to rewrite substantial portions of your GUI to get it to run on, say, linux.

yeah figured that, looking on youtube for C++ GUI Programming, ended up with ALOT of QT, so i guess i am going to use that! lol

anyway time to go SNOWBLOW AGAIN!!!!

ill let you know when i get a program running! I thank you all for the help, and advice. I started on BASIC, and DOS Batch files (which i STILL use today)

which funny thing about my batch files.

Back in 2003 while training units for iraq at fort campbell, i also was the network guy. I was asked to goto all 7 buildings i controlled, and get the IP`s Macs, computer names, and Users for everything!!! Well the programs i used to use for network polling were "not approved by DoD" so i thought for a minute, windows is an approved DoD OS, so the build in "dos box" was approved. So i wrote a batch to first ping all my ranges, 1 packet, just to see if it was there, then filtered what was there from what wasnt there, then did an NBTSTAT (netbios lookup) to get the name and mac from the pinged list, then did a directory list from the documents and setting folder to get the users. Well in 2 hours, did my two weeks worth of work, minus the very few systems that were off for the night. And have continued to use that batch ever since for my DoD networks!

ANYWAY out to snowblow, Thank you again

It seems I may have confused you.
I meant to imply that Windows Forms isn't standard C++. Visual Studio is a collection of multiple technologies in one, including C++/CLI and standard C++. So yes, you can use standard C++ with Visual Studio. Although, if you plan on using Qt, you may be better off with their Qt Creator. If using Visual Studio, you would have to do a Console application or Win32 application (not Windows Forms).

As for C vs C++, I'll be blunt with you.
C is meant for small embedded systems where resources are scarce and where it just isn't worth investing in big, complex compilers. It wasn't--and still isn't--meant to be used on big platforms such as PC, and it sure as heck is not a RAD tool.
Using C for PCs means that you will you write code that is pretty unreadable is most cases, difficult to maintain, extremely complex, full of bugs and full of security holes. It doesn't matter if you are an experienced programmer or not. Take a look at your code and tell me with 100% confidentially that there are no security issues or bugs. You just will not be able to.
Languages such as C++ greatly simplifies this complexity and cuts down on security issues and bugs. Therefore, if you at a privilege to use it, then you should.
I can't tell you what to do, of course, but this is my opinion based upon facts I know and a little bias. You should make your own decision, though.

I still subscribe to "code wants to be broken". I break everything routinely regardless of how "safe and secure" it is supposed to be. Debugging is 90% of programming.

A good habit, that one, and one that should be done regardless of language.
However, no one (and no tool) catches all bugs and spending time hunting down bugs costs money, time and sanity. So reducing them as much as possible is a worthwhile goal.