Windows Forms in C++

[Airslash]

Hello,

currently we are working with the Borland IDE to create applications in Delphi and CBuilder. These things work, but they convert everything to Delphi in the end and the tools we use to develop these applications claim to be C++ tools but under their shell theyre all a bunch of delphi tools.

I've been browsing the net a bit and been looking for a means to do Winform applications using C++.
I really enjoy programming in C++, but when I need to make winform applications, I'm sort of forced to either use Borland for doing this and resort to the underlying delphi or use Visual Studio, but then i'm forced to be working with the CLR, which I don't like at all. It hardly feels like C++ and alot of components, including the database do not work on this.

Am I kinda grabbing in the dark here? or is there a way to build windows forms in C++ without relying on Borland+vcl or Microsoft CLR ?

[Banfa]

There are a number of ways.

You can call the WIN32 API Directly from a C or C++ application to create a GUI application.

You could use MFC which is a C++ wrapper of WIN32 butit is very outdated a bit of a kludge and rather thicker than you would hope a thin wrapper would be.

You can use a third party library like QT or wxWidgets to create a GUI using C++. Not only that but since those libraries are multiplatform you get a portable application.