What is GUI??? A definition and explanation would be good.
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What is GUI??? A definition and explanation would be good.
GUI - Graphical User Interface...as in what Explorer.exe is (your windows interface...) it let's you click, drag, etc. instead of type all the commands at a prompt.
So, what I'm looking at right now (the screen) is created by GUI (actually, by a programmer, but GUI indirectly), right? Thanks.
No, it wasn't created by a GUI, it IS a GUI. It's a graphical form of interacting with your computer. go into DOS and type some commands - that's called command line. Now go back into windows - that's a GUI.
I know this isn't the Windows prog. section, but is that how you make a Windows application? With GUI?
I don't program for windows myself, but I'm guessing you have to study the special headers for windows (<windows.h>, etc.) and then look on some websites on the functions availble for it.
That's the first that comes to my mind at least.
Look, you dingleberry, Windows is an operating system which implements it's very own GUI. Therefore, when you write a windows app, you are using it's Graphical User Interface as well as it's other features to create the app. So to say "I will use a GUI to make a windows app" is a little backwards. Rather "I will use the Windows API which utilizes it's own GUI to write a program to run on the Windows Operating System" would be more correct.
Let's say you have a regular "black-box"(console/DOS) program. Nowadays, this program is encapsulated in a "window"( unless of course you booted your computer directly into DOS). Now you can resize and move this consoles window all over the screen. How so? Well, it is because the program is being run from within the Windows OS and GUI, and every time you move or resize a window, Windows literally re-paints the program console wherever you "told" it to. You could ofm course create your own GUI and even OS but that is a project best left to those with usually many many years of experience.
One sidenote to Windows programming. Windows does not run like a C program. That is it is a "message"-based Language(It is really it's "own" language even though it was written in C/C++. )
That means it is more "event" driven than "procedurally" driven, since most of the time the app it just waiting for a mouseclick or whatever to trigger a procedure. Of course it could be said that a C program could also be designed as "event" driven, and in fact, in a sense it actually is, but anyway that is just a useful abstraction to differentiate the major differences in approach between them.
I personally have only dabbled in windows programmiing, and can tell you it can be extremely unnerving and frustrating for the newbie. But if you'd like a do-nothing source-code for a Windows app, just let me know :)
--Happy Coding!
Okay, I understand about GUI. Yes, I would like some do-nothing Windows app source code.
--Garfield
PS Are you calling ME the dingleberry?
Au contraire. Windows does indeed 'run like a C program'; the last thing it is is 'its own language'. This misconception is the cause of fully 50% of problems with Windows.Quote:
One sidenote to Windows programming. Windows does not run like a C program. That is it is a "message"-based Language(It is really it's "own" language even though it was written in C/C++. )
You can implement message passing in pure ANSI C. The fact that Windows contains an implementation of this mechanism, and the fact that many of the facilities one associates with Windows relies on that mechanism, does not make it a new language.
See the board FAQ (http://www.cprogramming.com/boardfaq.html) for tutorials on Windows programming.
What I am saying is that insofar as there is a certain required precession of events, yes, Windows is in a sense it's own language. Or rather, it is C at such a progressive level of development that it does require certain syntax just to get an app to function correctly. Imagine if you developed(and many many do) a certain approach to your C programs that was so involved that certain "straight C" invocations would not work at all in these programs. So it is with Windows. So call it a "Procedurally Specific Implementation of the C and C++ Languages"(P.S.I.C.C.L. , for short), if you'd like, but I rather like the convention of referring to it as it's own language. I have to admit though my explanation was particularly misleading.
Windows is a set of libraries. No more. As I repeatedly stress (see http://www.sunlightd.com/Windows/GUI/Intro.html), any program that uses these libraries in any way can be called a Windows program.Quote:
What I am saying is that insofar as there is a certain required precession of events, yes, Windows is in a sense it's own language. Or rather, it is C at such a progressive level of development that it does require certain syntax just to get an app to function correctly.
Now, in order to produce a picture on the screen under DOS, most people use the software interrupt 0x13. Are you going to tell me this method (which is significantly more complex than the functional equivalent under Windows), which requires its own "required procession of events", constitutes a different language? Where do you draw the line? Event-driven programming is not a different language, merely a different methodology. I fail to see what 'straight C invocations' would cease to work by that simple change.
I don't mean to belabour the point unnecessarily. However, in relation to the amount you achieve, and the flexibility offered, Windows is no more difficult than most other programming environments. Statements like 'it is a new language' don't help the cause of those seeking to learn it.
What is a 'dingleberry', anyway?
Methodology is of course a much better description here, but nonetheless I call it a language--would dialect make you happier? Let's not forget that Windows the OS is the vehicle for Windows the "Dialect". I think they are sufficiently intertwined to constitute a differentiation between "A Windows Application" and "An Event Driven C Program". Further, I agree that C programs can and should be event driven to the extent that Windows Apps are. My only point really, was that from a procedural standpoint, newbies like myself (6 months programming) would benifit to consider it as a language of sorts, something you old-timers who have stared at Windows code for innumerable ages just cannot appreciate! It is the very libraries that MAKES Windows a creature of it's very own! But ultimately, you are right. Windows is not a separate language from C such as ,say, Fortran.
Dingleberry is an expression that cannot be translated to UnitedKingdom-ish. It harbors a deep meaning which cannot be understood by mere Britons. If I had to describe it I would say "It is imperceptible to the grasping mind. It is Tao.".