Thread: Cross-Platform GUI

  1. #1
    Registered Abuser
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    591

    Cross-Platform GUI

    I've seen this one come up before, and have seen some similar libraries mentioned. I would like to know what is the best cross-platform GUI builder for C/C++. I have quite a bit of experience now with the Win32 API in C, but would like to move onto using the power of C++, but feel that it wouldn't be quite right to simply use the (mostly) non-objective, C-targeted Win32 API or the bloating MFC.
    Primarly I'm looking for platform-indepence, good documenation, a rich library and to a large extent, native resemblance.
    I am right in looking for a widget toolkit as a solution? So far, I've researched GTK+, GTKmm, Qt, MFC, FLTK, wxWidgets and a few others from Widget Toolkits. What I found so far is that wxWidgets seems to meet all requirements the best, so I'm wondering if anyone has any pros/cons to add to this, or suggestions for other toolkits libraries.

  2. #2
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    8,895
    MFC ain't cross-platform, so you can safely forget about it.

    Qt, GTK and wxWidgets all have quite mature GUI designers. You'll have to try them out to find what you like best. The thing about GUI libraries and designers is that from 3 developers, you'll likely get 4 opinions.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Posts
    519
    http://www.ultimatepp.org/
    is another option. it ships also with an gui designer and a separate ide, too. check out the comparision map on the website

  4. #4
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    8,057
    If you want a list of even very obscure GUI libraries, try this: http://www.atai.org/guitool/
    dwk

    Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

    "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
    "Testing can only prove the presence of bugs, not their absence." -- Edsger Dijkstra
    "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." -- John Powell


    Other boards: DaniWeb, TPS
    Unofficial Wiki FAQ: cpwiki.sf.net

    My website: http://dwks.theprogrammingsite.com/
    Projects: codeform, xuni, atlantis, nort, etc.

  5. #5
    Registered Abuser
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    591
    Thanks for your help guys, I think I'm going to go with wxWidgets as it seems to be the best at all the above (GTK/Qt came close, but wxWidgets had the edge on native emulation).

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Cross platform XML library
    By Josh Kasten in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 04-09-2007, 04:04 PM
  2. wxWidgets cross platform GUI problem
    By BobS0327 in forum Linux Programming
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 05-31-2006, 06:34 AM
  3. load gif into program
    By willc0de4food in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 01-11-2006, 10:43 AM
  4. Question..
    By pode in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 12-19-2004, 07:05 PM
  5. cross platform game programming
    By xddxogm3 in forum Game Programming
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 08-22-2004, 09:40 AM