Jim McLaughlin wrote: > I have been working with CLR Console apps using Visual C++ 2008 Express. Now, > I too am looking to make the jump from the console to an event driven windows > GUI. Is MFC back in favor? Or is there a better approach? The IDE offers > Windows Forms Apps templates too. > > This thread has been very nformative but it is now 2009. What is the advice > today regarding Windows Forms or MFC? > > Many thanks! > > Jim > > >> Well, the reason MFC is a disaster in lieu of OO techniques is because we >> have to remember that it was developed as Visual C++ was developed. So, it >> has hacks and workarounds for compiler limitations built right into it.
It really depends on who you ask. MFC is still very tightly integrated into Visual C++ and the Ribbon interface was recently added to MFC in VS2008. MFC is a very "heavy" framework but generally easy to use solely because of its tight integration into the IDE. Due to its hefty requirements (and because Microsoft refuses to distribute the DLL binaries through Windows Update because "Windows Update is not a binary distribution platform" but they ironically distribute .NET binaries), a lot of people are moving away from it to lighter weight alternatives. WTL, for instance. Or more cross-platform libraries such as wxWidgets. The problem with cross-platform libraries is they aren't as tightly integrated into the Visual Studio suite of tools as MFC is (i.e. no embedded visual designer). For rapid development in VS - especially COM-based projects where you don't care about the weight/size of the final EXE and need to crank it out yesterday - you can't beat the combination of MFC, ATL, WTL, and whatever third-party libraries you want to drag in. Sure it'll chug 200MB RAM, but who is going to notice? ;) -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* MyTaskFocus 1.1 Get on task. Stay on task. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/MyTaskFocus/
