New with C++

[LimitBreaker15]

Good morning guys,

I just recently started learning C++ and was hoping to make small programs with GUI...

I already tried Visual Basics 2010 but people say that C++ is more powerful, so I'm hoping on learning it too.

I wanted to get started by creating a small window that would display, let's say, "Hello World", but I'm not sure about the programs I need. I already know a bit of the basics of C++ but I got confused about the "making a GUI" part... it seems that I need to use that "Win32 API"? I already downloaded Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express, do I still need to download it? If yes, why do I need it when I'm learning C++ and it says that Win API is for C? Wouldn't it defeat the purpose of learning C++ when what you needed is C? o_o so confusing...

[strongdrink]

Yes, the Win32 API is designed for C. I think you should take a look at this article...

http://unthought.net/c++/c_vs_c++.html

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the club ;)

[ResidentBiscuit]

Win32 is nice to know and all that, or at least be familiar with, but it's not the most productive of things to work with. There are many libraries out there that will be more productive, and allow you to produce much nicer interfaces.

[LimitBreaker15]

Oh... so it's not really a requirement..


then Visual Studio 2010 can handle program making+GUI in its own?

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the club ;)

Thanks :D

[ResidentBiscuit]

Visual Studio is just an IDE. Basically that means it has a text editor (obviously) with some text highlighting and IntelliSense. A compiler, linker, debugger, and some other little tools.

Now, when you download VS, it may come with some libraries. I'm pretty certain it comes with Win32 and DirectX. This doesn't mean VS makes GUIs by itself. You still have to link the proper libraries and program. You can actually do all of this with just a basic text editor (Notepad, Vi, whatever Mac uses, etc).

[LimitBreaker15]

Yes, I know it is an IDE...


What really confuses me is Win32 API... what is it? Is it a program? A library? An extension?

[ResidentBiscuit]

API = Application Programming Interface.

You can think of it as a library. In reality, it's an interface between different software systems to communicate to each other.

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/54451/library-vs-framework-vs-api

Here's a nice definition.

[LimitBreaker15]

API = Application Programming Interface.

You can think of it as a library. In reality, it's an interface between different software systems to communicate to each other.

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/54451/library-vs-framework-vs-api

Here's a nice definition.

Thanks! That clarified it a bit :D


Btw, I also got confused with different types of projects in Visual C++...
Could someone elaborate the difference between "CLR Empty Project", "Empty Project", "Win32 Console Application", and "Windows Forms Application"?