windows programming?

Question

I am teaching myself how to program in c++ and so far I can only make programs that run in the dos-looking cmd.exe window.

How do I go about making programs that have a more windows-like window with buttons and drop down menus and graphics and stuff?

Obviously it would be kind of hard to explain something like this here but if you could point me in the direction of some tutorials or tool-kit recommendations or some tips for getting started?

Thanks

I am using Visual C++ to program, and as someone said below, it provides 'windows form programming'....how do I get started there?

Answer 1

Gr8.. For dos-looking cmd.exe window, coding is easy in c++. For windows programming, you will have to use any language from the list: Java, VisualBasic 6.0, Visual C++, C#, VB.NET, VC++.NET etc.
These languages have inbuild libraries for Windows platform components. So just use it, for example, DialogBox.Show displays a designed dialogbox, where user can interact.

Answer 2

Use Visual C++, Visual Studio.Net
They provide windows form programming.

Answer 3

Google for windows programming tutorials and WinAPI tutorials.

You better have a very good understanding of C and C++ before you jump into the API world. Windows programming is *not* a part of C++ itself. Just an application of C++ programming.

Answer 4

Teaching yourself to program in C++ is very complicated. You might want to start out with something less complicated that can do much more like visual basic on the .net platform. This language is great for learning OOP (Object Orientanted Programming).

Answer 5

There are many libraries for helping one to code windows applications, such as FLTK - Fast Light ToolKit ( http://www.fltk.org/ ) or RAD C++ ( http://www.radcpp.com/ ) or gg_tk ( https://gna.org/projects/ggtk/ ), all of which can be used with g++, and can be downloaded as dev-paks for Dev-C++ ( http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/devcpp.html )