Member Avatar for mrcpp

I want to create my own widget toolkit, and I know it's possible without external tools(QT was written in C++, and so was wxWidgets). But I don't know how to do it, and I couldn't find anything in Google.

So how exactly do I create GUIs in C++ that way?


I'm on Linux.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Ancient Dragon

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Writing a widget toolkit from scratch is doable but large; keep the first goal tiny and iterative. wants the how — start by targeting one platform (the Linux display server you run on) and build a minimal app that can open a window, receive events, and draw pixels. rightly pointed to working at the windowing layer; the practical next steps below assume that approach without relying on a heavyweight framework.

First steps you can apply immediately: implement a single-threaded event loop, a platform abstraction (Window, GraphicsContext, Event), and one drawable widget (say, Button). Handle expose/paint, resize, mouse and keyboard events, and implement invalidation so only dirty regions repaint. Choose retained-mode (widget tree, stateful widgets) or immediate-mode (recompute UI each frame) up front — immediate-mode is much simpler to prototype with, retained-mode scales better for classic toolkits.

Key components to design in small iterations: event dispatch (hit testing, focus, capture), layout managers (box, grid), painting model (clipping, double-buffering, damage tracking), font/text layout, input method support, and theming/metrics. Keep rendering and input separate and always test with minimal examples (single button, then form, then scroll area). A tiny event loop sketch:

while (running) {
  pollPlatformEvents();
  dispatchEventsToWidgets();
  for (Widget* w : dirtyWidgets) w->paint(gc);
  swapBuffers();
}

Troubleshooting tips: log raw platform events while developing, test under different compositors/window managers, and avoid multithreading the UI. Start with a very small widget set and only add features as real needs appear (scrolling, clipping, accessibility). Expect to spend time on text metrics, DPI handling and edge cases (focus traversal, modal windows). Building your own toolkit is educational — iterate quickly, keep the codebase small, and reuse tiny, focused libraries only when they solve a specific hard problem (fonts, text shaping, GPU blitting).

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

For *nix you will want to study Motif, which is not free unless you use . If you don't want their tools either then use X11R6 (there might be newer versions though). I'm sure you will find tutorials with google. And if you are going to write an extensive toolkit of your own you will want to buy the entire collections of X11R6 books.

Edited by Ancient Dragon because: n/a
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