Thread: GUI, Unicode and +

Hi

I learned C++ and now I would like to make simple GUIs. I was wondering what GUI toolkit I could use, based on the following needs:

I need it to be platform independent,
I need it to use unicode ( I need to use IPA symbols ),
I have to be able to get some good tutorials on how to use it, since it'll be my first time GUI-ing.

I don't need it to do any 3D grafics, and it would be great if it was simple.

If it helps I use DevC++ on winXP, but if it could be used as easily on Fedora, it would be great.

QT is not free, so i can't use that,
FLTK seemed very interesting, but it seems i wouldnt be able to use unicode with it,
etc.

Any kind of help on what i could use to build simple GUIs would be very apreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Martin

IMO, there is no such thing as "simple" or platform independence when it comes to GUIs.

OpenGL with GLUT can be used to create graphics code that is reasonably platform independent, though the window it is built on is platform dependent. There are tutorials on OpenGL and DirectX available that many people report to be of good quality. OpenGL is available as a free download and is compatable with Dev-C++. I don't know about DirectX, though.

To create windows in Windows OS environment, you can use the Windows API straight up (available with Dev-C++), or use the MFC library in MS VC++/VC++.net or the VCL library (or later versions) in Borland to make your life a little easier with drop in components, etc. The API as well as MFC and VCL all support Unicode, AFAIK.

If by "simple", you mean Windows windows without the flexibility/options of Windows windows made with the above options, then you could look into MS Visual-Basic.

I'm not familiar with other options to create windows such as Linux or Apple other than by name, but my gut tells me that they aren't going to be a whole lot "simpler" than Windows windows.

I suspect that VB, Linux and Apple all support Unicode if you get the up to date compilers, but there again I can't say for sure. Linux compilers may be available for free download, but I doubt VB and Apple compilers are.

Maybe if you give an idea about what you want to do---basic window with/without drop down menus, base windows with/without child windows, games graphics, text manipulation, etc., someone can give you additional advice.