shags_j

Hey all,

I've just developed an application in VB. One part of it distributes another little program to other people (by cd etc). Problem I face is that I don't want them to have to install .net just to use this little side program.

So, I thought I would look for alternatives. Seems everyone uses c++ so thought I would head in that direction. I downloaded the new borland turbo C++ and got it all working.

Problem I now face is that I don't know where to start with getting tutorials etc. I did the tutes on c++ programming for console stuff (Beginner tutorials on this site) and I'm ok with the code etc. but am needing to do advanced stuff like shellexecute and reading xml files. I can't get any working due to my lack of knowledge of the C++ language in that direction (does any of that make sense?)

Cheers,

Shags

matsp

New and Borland Turbo C++ doesn't seem to go together. As far as I know, the Turbo C++ was discontinued before year 2000.

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Mats

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Bubba

The easiest switch from VB would be to move to C# since it grabs some of its ideas from VB, C++, and Java. I'm not discouraging you from learning C++ but if you are learning C++ just for GUI you are looking at the language through the wrong lens. C++ is far more than GUI. C# is geared heavily towards easy GUI creation (although it can do more) and it's learning curve is far less than MFC. MFC is not hard but if you don't know C++ MFC will be extremely hard and confusing to pick up.

Console C++ isn't going to get you anything in the way of GUI like VB. For GUI C++ you will either need to utilize a third party library, MFC, or C++/CLI.

Sorry but I wouldn't be offering good advice if I did not recommend C# to you based on the content of your post.

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shags_j

Thanks heaps for the advice. I will look into C#. The reason I chose C++ is because I couldn'treally think of what language to use and I did a small amount of c++ in my degree years ago.

Is there a package for using c# better than the new turbo c#?

EDIT: I need to make sure that the final .exe does not require the .net framework.

Cheers,

Shags

Bubba

MSVS Express Edition available at Microsoft's site. It's free.

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If you aim at everything you will hit something but you won't know what it is.

shags_j

but won't the final package require the .net framework?

Bubba

It will install that for you. .NET framework is maintained by Microsoft whereas the C# standard and versions are maintained by ECMA. The CLR is Microsoft's version of the CLI and it will install along with Visual Studio Express.

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If you aim at everything you will hit something but you won't know what it is.

shags_j

Sorry I meant won't my client need to install the .net framework to run the final package.

Bubba

Re-read my post. When you install MSVS it will install .NET for you. When you want to run your C# code on another system your setup and deployment project will auto-detect the .NET dependency. When the setup is ran on another computer, it will install .NET. I believe setup and deployment requires .NET to even function so it has to be installed.

Moving this to C# board since it is going in that direction.

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If you aim at everything you will hit something but you won't know what it is.

shags_j

The secondary package however I didn't want to install. The idea is it is meant to run an .exe directly from a cd on a clients computer.

After looking through everthing myself I think I will take this course:

Write a console application in c++ to check registry for existence of the correct version of .net for my application. If it exists, run the application and if not, direct the user to the .net setup @ microsoft (or even include the redist on the cd).

Cheers for your help Bubba. And for future packages I think I will definitely look at c# as an option.

Cheers,

Shags

robwhit

It would help if you could post some code you tried.