Thread: C++ Programming - GUI without Visual basic

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7

    Question C++ Programming - GUI without Visual basic

    Happy New Year everyone. This is my first post and I am relatively new to C/C++ programming.

    Is it possible to design Graphical User Interfaces without having to use Visual Basic?

    My aim is to design free Education tools which will help students better understand basic Electronics. So the GUI will cover the theory part: chapters, graphs etc.. and in the future also include the ability to send commands to a piece of hardware connected to the PC. This will help the student better understand the practical part.

    Thank you.

  2. #2
    [](){}(); manasij7479's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    *nullptr
    Posts
    2,657
    Quote Originally Posted by Condor View Post
    Happy New Year everyone. This is my first post and I am relatively new to C/C++ programming.

    Is it possible to design Graphical User Interfaces without having to use Visual Basic?

    My aim is to design free Education tools which will help students better understand basic Electronics. So the GUI will cover the theory part: chapters, graphs etc.. and in the future also include the ability to send commands to a piece of hardware connected to the PC. This will help the student better understand the practical part.

    Thank you.
    Welcome.. and Happy New Year..
    Of course it is possible to create GUIs without Visual Basic...!!!
    It would be quite difficult if you've just started learning C++ (or programming in general).
    So, I'd suggest building Command Oriented versions of your tools first...making guis for them won't be difficult once you are comfortable with the language.

    GUI libraries are not built into the C++ standard library though....you'll have to use external ones... like Qt.

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7
    Thank you manasij7479,

    How fluent in C++ will you need to be to use QT for this purpose? I had a look at qt.nokia.com and watched a few videos on youtube and I can say the GUIs generated are very neat.

  4. #4
    [](){}(); manasij7479's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    *nullptr
    Posts
    2,657
    For the basics, not much.. (..and almost none if you can cope with designing the gui visually && with UML(which is like javascript )).
    But it has a quite complicated (but well documented) class hierarchy you'll have to understand for anything beyond putting ready made widgets into layouts. For understanding it you would need a solid knowledge of Object Oriented programming in C++ ...
    (Also...its build system is rather complicated to comprehend...so stick with their native IDE at first..)

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7
    Thanks again for your reply.

    So, would it be a good advice for me to work on getting a good grasp on my C++ skills/coding and then move on to using QT for the GUI implementation?

  6. #6
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,412
    Yes, since that would be a foundation for learning how to use various other libraries as needed, besides Qt.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  7. #7
    - - - - - - - - oogabooga's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    2,808
    First you should decide if C++ is really the way to go for your project. Another possibility is Java. Here's an interesting circuit simulator applet written in Java. http://www.falstad.com/circuit/

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7
    Hello laserlight, thank you for your kind reply.

    This was my first ever post on any forums and I must say I am pleasantly surprised by how fast and how helpful the replies have been.

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    7
    Hello oogabooga, thank you for sharing. This is indeed an interesting simulator. In my case, after explaining the theory, I would like to be able to send commands to an external circuit board for a demo. For instance, i might have a slider which will represent the voltage and by sliding it, i will change the voltage on an external board (light dimmer perhaps or a fan with variable speed) connected to the PC.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Visual Studio DLL and Visual Basic
    By mathguy in forum C Programming
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 12-08-2011, 03:55 PM
  2. Replies: 10
    Last Post: 11-23-2007, 12:13 AM
  3. visual basic
    By abbynormal87 in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 11-20-2002, 09:52 PM
  4. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 04-20-2002, 06:49 AM
  5. Moving from Visual Basic to Visual C++
    By Unregistered in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 04-10-2002, 09:57 PM

Tags for this Thread