C++ GUI's

Hi everyone, I'm quite new to C++, but I am putting in 6 or 7 hours a day of learning (I have a lot of free time on my hands after being wrongfully expelled from school). But I am hoping to get a job in C++ when I am older.

But more to the point I was just wondering about GUI's with C++. Once I know alot more about C++ what will I have to learn to use GUI's? I'm not so clear on the subject of DirectX, Opengl and all that. If someone could give me any info on them or any links I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks again,

-Marlon

They are hell... do your gui's in either visual basic or C#

Well assuming Windows is your platform you could go for the windows API or MFC. The other choice is a cross platform library like GTK+ or wxWdidgets.

Yup, I'm on windows. Thanks for your responses, I'll probably look into Windows API and C# (I got bored of VB when I tried it).

Thanks again :)

Before you jump-in too deep, too quickly...

There is no color, graphics, mouse, sound, networking, etc., in Standard ANSI/ISO C++. All that stuff is extra and platform-specific.

If you were taking C++ in college, you might spend two full semesters on standard C++ before starting any graphics or GUI.

But, you don't really need to know everything about C++ before starting with GUI. The Windows API is almost a different language altogether. I knew quite a bit of C/C++ when I first opened Petzold's book and saw Hello Windows... I didn't recognize any of it! And, it's almost two freekin' pages of code!

You need the underlying C++ to make your program work well and to do something useful. You need the GUI stuff to make it easy to use, and to make it look good.

I would suggest that you start-out with the Windows API. I don't now if it's the easiest GUI, but there is probably ten times the learning material for it than for all the other GUIs combined.

Now, with all of those negative comments out of the way... Take a look at the Forgers Windows Programming Tutorial. Then when you're ready, get hold of a copy of Programming Windows, by Charles Petzold.

Thanks for the links and info Doug :). I realise that I have quite a while to go before I should be looking into GUI's, it's just a question which has been bugging me for a while.

It's not all that complicated... well it is... but it isn't.... you have to do one.. mine is full o' bugs

Assuming you're already pretty good with C++, and you understand C as well (lots of APIs still use C), here's one of the top rated Win32 tutorials :)