Creating "homemade" gui frameworks

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I know there are several respected frameworks for C++ and C#, but I was really wondering if someone could point me to any books or online tutorials for creating my own framework for a custom graphical user-interface (or any type of framework, for that matter). Thanks

Posted 8-Aug-13 17:24pm

TheUser4574

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-Aug-13 23:40pm

Books? Hardly. In principle, I can quickly explain the idea on how to make such framework based on raw Windows API. I used to start one with X-Windows (Linux) on a very similar idea (raw APIs have something in common, right?), but hardly can remember the detail. On Windows this thing is pretty obvious.
—SA

pasztorpisti 9-Aug-13 3:16am

I doubt the "quickly" and "obvious", but telling a few hints is possible for sure. :-) There is a technical and a design aspect of this: the technical requires a lot of experience of creating gui and custom controls and hacking around with at least one but rather more frameworks (and knowing the raw gui api of at least one OS). Without custom control creation and raw api programming experience its not that easy... It's also important to model the framework by stealing from the right places like .Net, Delphi, java swing,... and not from the wrong ones (like mfc).

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 9-Aug-13 10:39am

Well, relatively. "Obvious" means that in Windows I can tell where to start from right now, but hardly in X-Windows...
Here is what I mean: how to bind instances of C++ classes with instances of API windows. Then you can use all available windows classes (through Microsoft-predefined class names) and derive your own types from them, and add functionality based on the same window class by providing specialized message handling, in particular, via virtual function. From this point, Windows API is majorly wrapped...
—SA

pasztorpisti 9-Aug-13 11:10am

That is most important trick for sure. Another windows specific problem if we want to use native-looking controls is the forwarding of child window messages/notifications (received by the parent window) back to the child control objects (like WM_CTLCOLOR, WM_NOTIFY, ...). The next level is implementing windowed custom control base class (TCustomControl in delphi) and windowless custom control base (TGraphicControl in delphi) with which the creation of custom controls is a breeze. Another important info is that a normal gui framework is single threaded and its thread drives the gui and other things by processing a message queue in a loop. Everything in the gui framework is a message placed in the queue for processing (including button clicks, control painting, ...) and it is possible to inject custom messages from other threads in order to be able to communicate with worker threads. Of course this info is for OP and not for you. :-)

Besides the previously mentioned important technical details I'm quite concerned with the high level OO design of the framework but that is something to discover for OP by checking out as many frameworks as time allows. The best would be trying them as this helps in deciding which one is easier to use. I'm sad seeing that some people learn using just one framework and they worship/advertise it as the best or at least a good one even if this isn't true at all.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 9-Aug-13 11:18am

So true...
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 9-Aug-13 10:46am

Your points are good. MFC has its rational grain. What is bad in old MFC: their own classes parallel with STD, but different.
I really like Delphi bindings. I have a big magazine article where I introduces Unicode support in fully non-Unicode VCL (at that time). It was a trick based on understanding of this binding on a low level. Basically, you still existing window class by calling existing VCL method, change it to Unicode and reinitialize. This way, you can play without reimplementing those controls from scratch. The key is related to the technique of having window function in a window instance, but referencing "this" of the class (Delphi "self") which is also stored in a window instance...
—SA

Richard MacCutchan 9-Aug-13 4:13am

A framework in that sense is just a set of libraries that wrap the basic functions thus providing higher level features. You could write a set of classes that wrap the Windows GDI to make drawing easier. Assuming you are a reasonably competent C++ programmer this should not be too difficult.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 9-Aug-13 10:48am

It is really not too difficult for one who understands the idea and competent in programming. For many this is a mystery just because not many tried to master use Windows API from scratch, all the way from the basics of window classes and instance. Because it seems to be unnecessary, but I really think that a good deal of such work is really important to get deeper understanding of those things.
—SA

Richard MacCutchan 9-Aug-13 11:35am

I agree entirely. So many questions here demonstrate a real lack of understanding of the basics. And yet these are from people who are earning a living as commercial programmers.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 9-Aug-13 12:19pm

You wouldn't pay them, would you? :-)
—SA

The_Inventor 9-Aug-13 21:49pm

Let us not forget the true inventors of the GUI, Xerox. They invented the 'point' and 'click' GUI, with MAC and WIN each implementing their own version, IBM is in there as well. You will also want to investigate other kinds of User Interfaces available, such as 'touch screens', pen and tablet, IR laser pointers, 3D virtual interface using hand waving in air behind view screen, and so on. There a lot of new stuff out there. Discover the best interface for your needs, then worry about the code needed.

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Volynsky Alex · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-13T09:34:00

Let's try to read the Framework-Based Software Development in C++[^] book.
This book provides a detailed methodology for implementing frameworks -- today's most important advance in object technology to solve real business problems. This book introduces a new methodology for building frameworks that reflect the needs of a business. It provides a step-by-step procedure for performing domain analysis, which is critical to developing reusable software. It presents design patterns and rules, as well as metrics that can be used to assess the relative quality and usefulness of frameworks. It introduces procedures to be followed in developing a framework, including pattern selection, documentation and testing -- and shows the role of management in framework development. Using the new methodology, the book walks through the construction of two frameworks, one to automate workflow, and another to develop a global risk measurement application. This book is for virtually all software developers, engineers and managers, because it provides the first practical methodology for developing object frameworks, which will be increasingly central in object-oriented software development.

Good luck.
Alex.