GUI for beginners

Mar 19, 2012 at 1:05am
Hi, I have to write a two player chess game for school and if my partner and I implement GUI , we will get extra credit.
I was looking into allegro and .NET and was wondering if there is any GUI that is easy to learn and setup.
It doesn't need to be fancy. I wouldn't like to dabble in 3D or advanced graphics.
A simple 2D chess board and pieces will be satisfactory.
I'm using VS 2010 Express.

ps, I'm new to c++ and I've never used GUI before. Do you think completing this program with GUI is reasonable in about 2-3 weeks?

*Sorry if i posted this in the wrong section
Last edited on Mar 19, 2012 at 1:13am
Mar 19, 2012 at 1:23am
Well, it should actually be really simple for the graphics because you want to have a bitmap for all the pieces (pawn, rook, bishop, Knight, Queen, and King) and of course the board (white square, black square). I wouldn't even get too complicated with it, into a back buffer the chess board and then draw the pieces on top based on the current board setup.

So you would focus more so on WM_PAINT and using that instead of anything else. Another way would be to create static windows for each board spot with a background color of black or white, then draw on it if you have a piece there but that might be too much for something this simple.

Like I said, I would focus in on using WM_PAINT and drawing the bitmaps on fixed locations.
Mar 19, 2012 at 1:36am
Agreed with William, but just so you know WM_PAINT is NOT C++ it is Windows API. So therefore you need to #include <windows.h> when using anything Win API.
Mar 19, 2012 at 1:39am
I'm sure if OP knows what WM_PAINT is, he know's how to use Win32 :D
Though now that I actually read it, he says he hasn't done any GUI. So OP, I'd go check out MSDN and follow their tutorial for creating a window and make sure you understand the functions going into it. Spend a night on that, and then you should be good to using the rest of the API to design your GUI
Mar 19, 2012 at 3:40am
A few days ago I knew nothing about Win32 and I've been studying pretty hard since then. I have to say, I don't think I could make a chess game in 2-3 weeks.

But, it is extra credit, so that makes me guess that you've at least been introduced to it.
Mar 19, 2012 at 4:26am
Well, a chess game with no AI wouldn't be too bad. It's just the AI that would make it hard
Mar 19, 2012 at 8:47am
well he said a two player game, so obviously AI is excluded.
Mar 19, 2012 at 11:37am
Wait, why dive into Win32? I'd suggest you learn some SDL (or allegro or SFML).
Mar 29, 2012 at 10:47pm
Thank you very much for the responses!
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