At the end of my rope with C++ (that includes Visual C++! )

[voltron888]

I am not sure if this is the place to ask this question.
I have been working on learning C++ for about 2 years now.
A year ago i got tired of it all , so i made a comprimise and went to visual C++ 6.0 (didnt want to go to that because i wanted the most efficiancy i could get) and recently bought Visual Studio 2005. I have bought so many books and read so many of them. They all leave me with a gap. I learn how to do the simple things , but not teaching me where to go next. I can make text based console applications till the cows come home , I am very good at using most C++ features , Classes , pointers , not the best at them , but i still know enough to get by.
BUT the books , articles , programs , what ever i use never tell me how to take the next step to make "real" program that has a GUI.
I have even went to using the Windows Forms to design GUI , but have discovered even that didnt take me far enough.
None of my books have taught me how to use libraries , or antyhing like that. I was told i had to use these to get somewhere , but no idea where to go.

I want to make programs to help people , remember meds , manage health problems.
I want to make programs to plan gardens , where you have like a graph background and can drag and drop pictures of plants.
I want to make a jigsaw puzzle game.....
This stuff isnt rocket science i know , i just dont know the steps to go to learn the extra stuff so i can make windows programs GUI that i can have all of this stuff in.

Does any one have any ideas where i can go from here. Books i can read , sugestions i can take , articles to read.

I am great at making programs in PHP , because i can use the HTML as the gui.

I want this so bad , to be able to make programs , and am willing to work for it , i just need to have an idea where the path is i need to go down.

Thank you very much for reading this.
And thank you even more if you reply LOL.

Nic

[SyncViews]

I had this problem as well. There plaenty of basic stuff and plenty of advanced stuff but little about how you go from basic console apps to GUI's and grafics.

I started with SDL as that keeps things fairly simple although i'm, now moving over to Directx as most of my stuff is game related.

[url=http://www.libsdl.org/]SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer[/url]

This tutorial is a good starting point. It is pretty much the only thing that helped me bridge the gap from console apps to grafics/gui etc. It has versions for all the major compilers and platforms so it shouldn't matter what your useing.
http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/index.php

(EDIT: I know your not into game programing but the same concepts apply weather your drawing a tank or a plant pot)

[dirk]

Everyone who programs windows GUIs will tell you something different.
Some people like MFC, for instance.
Other people like 3rd party libraries.
I like the API, so I would recommend the latest book by Petzold.
Actually, reading MSDN can also teach you how to do it.
That's where you will eventually end up anyway!
Try here and look at the "generic sample":
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383750(VS.85).aspx

[z05DSL3A]

If you can find a copy at a reasonable price, I would recommend “Windows Graphics Programming: Win32 GDI and DirectDraw” by Feng Yuan.

[Jeff HS]

ok MFC is all about classes hierarchy, inheritance ... and so is some other good API like Qt.
most of the time you will be deriving your own classes from the API classes heres an short example:
since you are using the VC studio
heres a example of a MFC app.

New Project -> Win32 Project -> name it -> at the wizard go to the application setting check the empty project box.
Now you you have an empty project yay so go the Project menu then -> properties -> Configuration properties -> General -> Use of MFC choose: Use MFC in a Shared DLL -> click the Ok button.
now Add -> Add New Item -> code -> source code -> name it.

add the following code.

#include <afxwin.h>


class COurapp : public CWinApp 

{
public:
	virtual BOOL InitInstance();
};

class COurWnd : public CFrameWnd
{
public:
	COurWnd()
	{
		Create(0, L"WOW a Window");
	}
};

BOOL COurapp::InitInstance()
{
	m_pMainWnd = new COurWnd;

	m_pMainWnd->ShowWindow(m_nCmdShow);

	return TRUE;
}

COurapp AnApp;

a nice starting book:
Ivor Horton’s
Beginning Visual C++® 2005
its a book from 2006(i think)
the MFC changed a little since.
any book from Jeffrey M. Richter or Charles Petzold on windows programming
is highly recommended.

MFC documentation can be found here:
if you did not install the msdn you can find it online here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/

Dont worry you can use the VC Studio GUI designer with the MFC too.
Create a Project with the MFC application template you have a simple program in less than 5 minutes.
[EDIT]
if your did not like the MFC or wanna check other APIs a nice API list can be found here (thanks Duoas):
http://www.free-soft.org/guitool/

Jeff

[nikster2015]

Hi Im new to c++ I know you probably get tired of repeating yourself to neewbies.But i am interested in getting started on this websites tutorial
but. Well im new to all computer programming the code at the beginning of the tutorial what do i do type it into notepad or do i have to download a programme to write it into. And if it is a programme like notepad what and how do i open it to see the outcome.

I would really be thankful for anyones help.