C++ newbie question please HELP!!!?

[Sasuke U]

ok, so im fairly new to writing programs... so far i can do simple things like math in an MS-DOS window (you know, those black windows with grey letters) but i want to move on to real windows applications. well, basically i just want to know how to create an actual Windows 'window', a GUI. how do you do this? can you post the code to make a gui window here? thanks! and i'll be sure to pick you as best answer =D
@fourth answerer: thank you for actually answering my question!! i have to wait 4 hours before i can choose yours as best answer. thanks!
@first answerer: that has nothing to do with my question -.-

@second answerer: i think you mean visual basic... visual c++ is and IDE with a compiler, just like dev c++ (which is what im using)

 

[valley9]

You should download Visual C++ 2008 (Express Edition - FREE)... go to http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/ and scroll to the bottom of the page and download Visual C++...

Once you download it, you'll be able to create windows forms, buttons, menus, and much more... everything you need for GUIs. This will be especially useful for you since you're a beginner and with Visual C++ you can simply drag-and-drop controls onto the page without doing much coding. (Then later on, after seeing the generated code, you'll be able to write the code yourself if you wanted to. But for now, I strongly recommend downloading Visual C++ (on link above) and you'll be able to create GUIs really quickly.

 

[jacobandalex]

Going from console programming (what you did there) to windows programming is hard. The code jumps from a few dozen lines to sometimes over hundreds. To get a working program, start a non-empty, win32 project (not console) in Visual Studio, if you have it, which I suggest because it is free and powerful. This will provide a good starting project that will display a window. Here the shortest program that will display a plain white screen using the windows API, standard with windows:

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

//application title
#define APPTITLE "Hello World"

//function prototypes (forward declarations)
BOOL InitInstance(HINSTANCE,int);
ATOM MyRegisterClass(HINSTANCE);
LRESULT CALLBACK WinProc(HWND,UINT,WPARAM,LPARAM);


//the window event callback function
LRESULT CALLBACK WinProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
switch (message)
{
case WM_DESTROY:
PostQuitMessage(0);
break;
}
return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
}

//helper function to set up the window properties
ATOM MyRegisterClass(HINSTANCE hInstance)
{
//create the window class structure
WNDCLASSEX wc;
wc.cbSize = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);

//fill the struct with info
wc.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
wc.lpfnWndProc = (WNDPROC)WinProc;
wc.cbClsExtra = 0;
wc.cbWndExtra = 0;
wc.hInstance = hInstance;
wc.hIcon = NULL;
wc.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH);
wc.lpszMenuName = NULL;
wc.lpszClassName = APPTITLE;
wc.hIconSm = NULL;

//set up the window with the class info
return RegisterClassEx(&wc);
}

//helper function to create the window and refresh it
BOOL InitInstance(HINSTANCE hInstance, int nCmdShow)
{
HWND hWnd;

//create a new window
hWnd = CreateWindow(
APPTITLE, //window class
APPTITLE, //title bar
WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, //window style
CW_USEDEFAULT, //x position of window
CW_USEDEFAULT, //y position of window
500, //width of the window
400, //height of the window
NULL, //parent window
NULL, //menu
hInstance, //application instance
NULL); //window parameters

//was there an error creating the window?
if (!hWnd)
return FALSE;

//display the window
ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);
UpdateWindow(hWnd);

return TRUE;
}


//entry point for a Windows program
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine,int nCmdShow)
{
// declare variables
MSG msg;

// register the class
MyRegisterClass(hInstance);

// initialize application
if (!InitInstance (hInstance, nCmdShow))
return FALSE;

//set random number seed
srand(time(NULL));

// main message loop
while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
{
TranslateMessage(&msg);
DispatchMessage(&msg);
}

return msg.wParam;
}

Told you it was long. This was copied from Beginning Game Programming. Make sure that you are using a win32 project, not a console project. Also, use a multibyte charecter set, not Unibyte. It is a project setting. If you have any problems or questions, email me at [email protected]