Hi guys!
I wanted to know how can i go about making a desktop application with C++? My application would need to do a lot of internet intensive processes and reside on the client's system, much like outlook express or evolution mail services..

i need to know what all packages i would require and whether c++ would be better or java for this?

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

C++ can as such achieve any possible task you can think about. The only problem is the GUI support doenst come along with C++ so you would have to use GTK (graphic tool kit) to achieve the graphics related functionality. To help you out with some of the most common tasks you can also try out the boost library for C++ which has an easy interface for calling out those funcitons.

As far as Java is concerned, it has inbuilt GUI capabilities (Swing) and much better support for network related functionality. The only problem is the speed concern. Java tends to eat up more resources than an application developed in C++ (ok i dont want to start a language war but this is what i think). Officially quoted Java is 90% the speed of C++.

So in the end it depends on the kind of application you are required to make. Just analyze the problem considering all the constraints mentioned above and choose the one which suits you the most.

Hope it helped, bye.

If you intend to support MS-Windows only, C# might be a better language than C++ because it is suppored to have web stuff built into the language. It is M$ answer to Java but right not I think it is only supported in MS-Windows os. I installed Fedora last weekend on my computer and saw one of the messages say something about .NET support files. So maybe linux is starting to support it too.

thanks guys!
infact thats where I was getting into. The application has to be commmercialy viable. and hence has to have a major support for MS Windows.
But I wd wanna make an app that is portable to linux too.
although i think java might be easier to code in, i was looking more towards c++/c# for the fun of it.

are there any places where I can get the basics of developing a desktop application? like the tools even how to use them best?

I have kinda zeroed on c++ with GTK. My question is how portable is it to wndows(if at all) or how can i ensure portability?

thanks in advance :)

Protability can be ensured if you aim for the *nix platform since those open source and GNU supporters ensure that the app runs on each and every Operating system whereas Microsoft doesnt give a damn.

GTK is an opensource Graphic Toolkit and is completely portable, so if you use it, portability should not be an issue. If you have some money to spend then you can aim for the QT toolkit which provides the necessary GUI support and has very good support site with excellent video tuts, but of course it comes for a price. The decision rests in you.

Hope it helped, bye.

But GTK has something like GTK for Windows!
and that is one very little documented thing.. (allthat I cd see) so i was worried whether the GTK itself would be portable...

wd dig in more to see..
and wd keep u guys updated

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.