Discussion GUI toolkit/framework/widget for dialog plugin

[Goth]

Suppose that a guy (because the problem is general, not just for me) wants to create a dialog plugin for Orbiter, without going mad with WinAPI and .rc files.
Say he doesn't want to buy Visual Studio.
He needs a free widget:
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget_toolkit"]Widget toolkit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
or framework? or toolkit? Well, you got it anyway.

There are a lot of options.
Windows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_widget_toolkits#On_Microsoft_Windows
Cross platform (ok, Orbiter currently isn't, but you never know, and some cross-platform software may be better anyway):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...B_.28including_bindings_to_other_languages.29

What do you think should the guy choose? Especially taking into consideration that:
* he may want to share the code/development with other fellow orbinauts, so the toolkit can't be too difficult to learn and should be well-known;
* the toolkit needs to decently fit with Orbiter API and Visual C++ (since, unless I'm wrong, VC++ should be used anyway for the final DLL compatibility - ?).

Forgetting all this and just going for good-old-WinAPI-code-solution is also an acceptable answer, just please elaborate/verbalize motivations.

Discussion is open.

 

[meson800]

I've never used .NET in C++, but it is possible. In that instance, I would just use Windows Forms, they are much simpler than the win-API solution.

However, Orbiter is already set up to use the Windows API, it has functions to easily create winAPI windows and dialogs. If the worry is about creating resource files (which is a pain), there are several good, free resource file creators, such as ResEdit that can be used. However, the resource file method still requires using WinAPI, which can be a real pain sometimes.

 

[storm]

Why do you need to buy Visual Studio to be able to make dialogue interfaces in Orbiter? Do the express versions no longer come with a resource compiler o.o ?

I'd personally stick to the good old win32, mostly because it has been somewhat "integrated" in Orbiter. Orbiter is flexible enough that you could probably get any other toolkit to play along well enough. It could get messy though due to the fact that the event based toolkits often expect you to hand over program control.

Qt is a really nice well polished framework. If you want something professional like that try looking into it. As for me, I am content with win32 code wrapped up nicely.

 

[Goth]

Do the express versions no longer come with a resource compiler o.o ?

You have to write them by hand which is a pain.

Qt is a really nice well polished framework. If you want something professional like that try looking into it.

Yes I was already learning it, it seems cool and easy.