Hello all!

I've been doing console apps for about a year and a half now, but my requirements are reaching the limits of easy to use with ASCII-based UI and typed commands so I'm thinking of moving into GUI-era with my projects. I was wondering if some one could help me into the right direction. I've been Googling a ton these past few days for some kind of a book or a course on how to code desktop applications for Windows, but either there isn't one, or it's very well hidden. I've found bits and pieces but nothing to give me a coherent approach.

The other way I've been thinking is to do the thing browser-based, but for some reason that doesn't feel right.

On Monday, 29 January 2018 at 22:55:12 UTC, I Lindström wrote:
>
> The other way I've been thinking is to do the thing browser-based, but for some reason that doesn't feel right.

Well it didnt felt wrong for Microsoft to use modified internet explorer to make calculator. You can read more on universal windows apps and XAML

To learn GUI development first find GUI framework like GTK, QT etc. then watch and/or read tutorials on how to use them. For D language a list of libraries could be found here
https://wiki.dlang.org/GUI_Libraries

On 29/01/2018 11:56 PM, welkam wrote:
> On Monday, 29 January 2018 at 22:55:12 UTC, I Lindström wrote:
>>
>> The other way I've been thinking is to do the thing browser-based, but for some reason that doesn't feel right.
> 
> Well it didnt felt wrong for Microsoft to use modified internet explorer to make calculator. You can read more on universal windows apps and XAML
> 
> To learn GUI development first find GUI framework like GTK, QT etc. then watch and/or read tutorials on how to use them. For D language a list of libraries could be found here
> https://wiki.dlang.org/GUI_Libraries

But since Windows is the only platform mentioned or desired for, everything you need is in WinAPI!

On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 03:07:38 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:

> But since Windows is the only platform mentioned or desired for, everything you need is in WinAPI!

It's like saying "everything you need is assembly language" when talking about languages and compilers. Pure WinAPI is a cruel advice for a novice.

There are far too many options for Windows GUI programming, so we probably need a bit more information about any constraints that are important to you.

For example:

- do you specifically want something that works well with D? or are you open to other languages?

- are you just wanting to learn desktop programming in general? (Like the concepts involved) Or do you have a specific thing you want to create?

I would personally suggest Delphi to somebody who wants to write Windows desktop apps and learn about event-driven development, howeverrr the language (Object Pascal) is insufferably archaic compared to something like D. But it is definitely the cleanest, least-overwhelming method of writing native Win32 applications for somebody with no prior experience.

Then there's all the modern Microsoft stuff (WPF/XAML/WinRT/etc), but you pretty much have to use either .NET or C++ for that.

On 30/01/2018 5:47 AM, thedeemon wrote:
> On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 03:07:38 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
> 
>> But since Windows is the only platform mentioned or desired for, everything you need is in WinAPI!
> 
> It's like saying "everything you need is assembly language" when talking about languages and compilers. Pure WinAPI is a cruel advice for a novice.
> 

There are libraries such as[0], so it isn't cruel, but it is something worth while at least to look into for someone who might be interested in it, but doesn't know where to begin.

[0] https://bitbucket.org/dgui/dgui

On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 06:25:52 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
> On 30/01/2018 5:47 AM, thedeemon wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 03:07:38 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:
>> 
>>> But since Windows is the only platform mentioned or desired for, everything you need is in WinAPI!
>> 
>> It's like saying "everything you need is assembly language" when talking about languages and compilers. Pure WinAPI is a cruel advice for a novice.
>> 
>
> There are libraries such as[0], so it isn't cruel, but it is something worth while at least to look into for someone who might be interested in it, but doesn't know where to begin.
>
> [0] https://bitbucket.org/dgui/dgui

There's also DWT which has the advantage of being portable.

On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 05:56:51 +0000, DanielG wrote:

> Then there's all the modern Microsoft stuff (WPF/XAML/WinRT/etc), but you pretty much have to use either .NET or C++ for that.

VS release builds compile to native now by default; for easy Windows programming, you really can't beat C# and drawing the GUI (Windows Forms, not necessarily the new stuff). If the OP wants to learn what's needed for more complex GUI tasks (like for most non-simple applications), learning to build a GUI from source is kind of necessary though.

If/when .NET Core becomes something people can rely on and are willing to try, I think we'll see more people using C# outside the enterprise; you get easy when you want it, power when you need it, native code generation on Windows, and OS portability.

On Monday, 29 January 2018 at 22:55:12 UTC, I Lindström wrote:
> The other way I've been thinking is to do the thing browser-based, but for some reason that doesn't feel right.

Ironically the trick for native programming is to depend on the OS as less as possible, with a small "API surface".

On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 at 05:47:11 UTC, thedeemon wrote:
> It's like saying "everything you need is assembly language" when talking about languages and compilers. Pure WinAPI is a cruel advice for a novice.

He's not a novice: he wrote console applications that pushed through complexity limit. Writing complex GUI application in winapi is cruel, but for hello world it's fine and gives good understanding of principles. To use GUI frameworks one must understand both underlying principles and abstractions rolled on top of them.