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Hi
I've been programming in C++ builder for the last 30 years, but I never used visual studio so I don't really know where to start, I 've seen a couple of hallo world command line apps, but that is NOT what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for an example (preferable video) on how to make a a simple GUI app from scratch in visual studio e.g.
5 edit fields with labels a button and a listview with 5 columns
When the button is clicked the text in the edit are added to the listview.
The example could also be a simple calculator.
The code I need to write must be C/C++ .
Added: There must be a Visual designer for the GUI.
Anybody who knows where I can find such examples.
Best regards
Asger
An internet search for "MFC dialog-based application" will return numerous links for tutorials and videos that you can look into.
Thanks for the answer, you got me started, but I soon got to some .NET and Winform it looks like visual studio can handle both in its designer, not sure how that work though.
In order to create a Windows Forms application you will need to become familiar with Microsoft's C++/CLI. It is not the C++ that you are accustomed to - for a description refer to C++/CLI
Microsoft removed the templates to create Windows Forms applications using C++/CLI from Visual Studio versions released after VS2010. The intent was for C++/CLI to be used when it was necessary to interoperate between C++ unmanaged code and managed code written in other languages (e.g., C#, VB.Net).
Regardless, users developed workarounds so that they could continue to use C++/CLI for Windows Forms Applications by modifying CLR projects that could be created by Visual Studio. These workarounds are pretty well documented and should not be hard for you to find on the internet if you decide to pursue C++/CLI coding.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(211.20000000000002, 61%, 30%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EBS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
MFC is a much lower level library than you are used to. You can also pick WinUI (still dated compared to other platforms) which is more recent and probably easier.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/winui/winui3/create-your-first-winui3-app
Thanks for your answer.
I can't find anyone using a visual designer with winui3 except they do some tricks XAML and I really would prefer a visual designer when making the GUI.
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Hi, @Asger P
Here is the Win32 GUI document:
Module 1. Your First Windows Program
button messages
And you could create Win32 template project from Windows Desktop Wizard -> Desktop Application
For your reference: MSDN CPP samples https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/cpp-docs/blob/main/docs/overview/visual-cpp-samples.md#mfc-samples---general
Best regards,
Minxin Yu
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Thanks for your answer, but I don't think I understand what you are suggesting, you did read that I have been using C++Builder for the last 30 years (making GUI programs for windows), so going back to handling button message and message loops are not really my cup of tea.
I installed Visual studio 2022 and would like to see what it could do for me.
The example could also be a simple calculator.
First Google links :
https://mitxela.com/projects/windows_calculator
https://www.instructables.com/Making-a-simple-application-using-the-Win32-API/
Thanks for your answer, but if that was the kind of answer I was looking for I could have found it my self, we are past the stone age.
Thank you Castorix31, that link will come in very handy.
One problem is that C++/CLI is not a lot used...
The last MS Framework, WinUI 3, uses C# and C++/WinRT
For quick GUI with standard controls (Buttons, TextBoxes, ListBoxes, ...), I generally do them in WinForms/C# (C# syntax being simpler, like VB.NET)