creating forms

[softwareguy74]

Hi,

I'm learning C++ and it seems that there is not graphical way of making a form. Is that true? I see that I can use the Dialog editor but that's not a regular form, right? Is there a way to graphically make the main window? It is "Visual" C++, right? By the way, I don't want to use MFC... JUst a regular Win32 app and be able to graphically create the main window and any child windows..

Any help would be appreciated..

Dan

[Technocrat]

You can create a window and everything you would expect to see in a window, buttons, edit boxes, child windows etc. with out MFC by manually creating it. The downside is that if you are creating a large or complex program this is going to be very long and painful. MFC does a lot of the hard stuff for you.

Here is a link to ID3 editor I used to help me make a form without MFC when I was thinking about doing it that way. Then I figured out that doing GUI without MFC was not easy

http://www.planet-source-code.com/xq/ASP/txtCodeId.512/lngWId.3/qx/vb/scripts/ShowCode.htm

[softwareguy74]

Are you sure that's the correct link? I followed the link and it brings me to a program for finding MP3 file info...

So what you're saying is there is no built in way, besides using MFC that allows you to graphically create the main window? Why do they call it Visual then?

here is a program I wrote(it's a calculator)
it uses CreateWindowEx to create windows.

http://www.planetsourcecode.com/xq/ASP/txtCodeId.1018/lngWId.3/qx/vb/scripts/ShowCode.htm


and you can to http://www.winprog.org/tutorial for a tutorial on how to create windows.

and creating GUI's without MFC is simple if you know how. you just have to learn first...


-Dennis

[Technocrat]

Originally posted by dbassettt74
Are you sure that's the correct link? I followed the link and it brings me to a program for finding MP3 file info...

So what you're saying is there is no built in way, besides using MFC that allows you to graphically create the main window? Why do they call it Visual then?

Yes thats the correct link. Its and MP3 ID3 editor and it is good because the source code shows you how to do a number of basic things, like buttons, edit boxes, list view, etc. manually.

By built in, I am not sure what you mean. Is it like VB where you draw a from and code everything around the form, not really, MFC FormView is kind of like that but its no where near as easy as VB. Is there a wizard to make a window with out MFC, well "Hi World" in Win32 app is as close as you are going to get. They call it Visual because you can do visual things with it like create windows, GUI and things like that instead of just command line, dos interfaces, or DLLs.

[agent]

I'd like to see somebody write a program that can read a .frm file and create the c++ code necessary to create a similar window using CreateWindowEx.

I was writing a program in VB that could read an .frm file and load the form and all it's controls into a collection of 'clsControl' objects which in turn have a collection of 'clsProperties' to hold the controls' properties.

That would make it much easier to convert an .frm into a .cpp file that has all the code necessary to create those objects...

[CornedBee]

Actually this has got NOTHING to do with MFC.

You can graphically create dialog boxes. You can use a dialog box as you main window if your program uses that style of interface (I'm pretty sure the windows calculator works that way, but I'd have to test that).
You can do that with or without MFC, it makes no difference. MFC simplifies getting and setting the values of the fields, but nothing more.

You cannot graphically create a real window in VC++. Borland C++ Builder allows you to do that, but then you are absolutly bound to the OWL.

And you would be best off not touching MFC until you know your way around the WinAPI, and not touching the WinAPI until you really know the language.

[Technocrat]

*Looks around* ***, I dont remember this thread....
*Looks at the date of the orginal post*
Umm ***!!! :confused:

Why didn't you make a new post instead of replying to a post thats almost 2 years old?

[CornedBee]

Why should he?

[Technocrat]

Well this wasn't his thread. His question didn't really have anything to do with orginal post. Again, the post is just shy of being two years old.

I really don't care all that much, it was just a odd coming in to a thread that you don't remember. It would have made more sense, at least to me, to start a new thread, thats all.

[CornedBee]

There's nothing wrong with reviving old threads. It gives other people an idea of what has already been suggested (and probably tried by the asker).

But you're right, in this case his post was pretty useless. He already said that in other threads.

[Technocrat]

Originally posted by CornedBee
There's nothing wrong with reviving old threads. It gives other people an idea of what has already been suggested (and probably tried by the asker).

I agree 100% to that. But I don't know how helpful responding to a 2 year old thread would be, unless it was a huge project like kedman's.

[agent]

i replied to this old post quite by accident... i was looking for a program to graphically create forms in c++ code and searched for creating forms. didn't look at the date before posting a reply...

[parksie]

Originally posted by agent
i replied to this old post quite by accident... i was looking for a program to graphically create forms in c++ code and searched for creating forms. didn't look at the date before posting a reply... VC++ can create normal Windows dialogue boxes, which you attach code to in the normal API way.