CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++windowsuser-interfacec++buildervcl
Saulius Žemaitaitis
Saulius Žemaitaitis

Reputation: 2974

A good (and free) VCL GUI alternative

I've got a project with a rather messy VCL codebase built on Borland C++ Builder 6. I intend to rewrite most parts of it since it's hardly maintainable in it's current state. I'm looking for a good and free alternative to VCL. It is a Windows-only closed source commercial project.

So main requirements are:

  1. Free for commercial closed-source projects
  2. Manage Windows GUI. Other components (db links and stuff) not required
  3. Be extendible (so one could write my own GUI components based on existing ones)
  4. Be STL-friendly.

Please post your suggestions, with pros and cons if possible.

EDIT

Thanks for all the answers. I've decided to go with Qt as it has some other nice features like Qt Linguist translation suite.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 7315

Answers (6)

ismail
ismail

Reputation: 47682

Try Qt. Its LGPL so it can be used in closed source software. It provides widgets, networking functions, database access, web rendering via WebKit, animations and many more. Its documentation is one of the best of its kind.

Upvotes: 5

Sadegh
Sadegh

Reputation: 6854

You could use QT or wxwidgets.

Upvotes: 3

no_one
no_one

Reputation: 1850

You might want to look at Qt Project

Upvotes: 1

Alexey Orlov
Alexey Orlov

Reputation:

As pointed by mghie

wxWidgets is a great library. It has a lot of bindings (.net, lua-my favorite etc) and it has gui editor. Although it generates rather obscure code, you can find simply split ui \ it`s functionality.

Upvotes: 2

Francis
Francis

Reputation: 12058

What you need may be the free version of BCB: Turbo C++ Explorer, or try .NET CLR / WinForms.

WxWidgets is simply a GUI library. Qt is a platform, but still far from a RAD framework like VCL. The only competitive is MFC, and unfortunately it's not free. In some point of view, .NET+CLR is the successor of VCL - well, maybe you can also try that - if you don't mind it requires the huge .NET framework.

If you just want a "good and free solution" and don't mind sticking with VCL, use TC++Exp.

Upvotes: 1

mghie
mghie

Reputation: 32344

Check out wxWidgets. Its design is a little old-fashioned, but when you start with it and use the most recent version it should be quite STL friendly. It is free for commercial use, and even when you don't intend to use its cross-platform capabilities it may be a good library for you to write a Windows GUI.

Upvotes: 6

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