CSC300Visual Programming

Dr. Craig Reinhart

Objectives

• Teach the basics of C++– You won’t be an expert but hopefully a very

good novice– GUI development

• Lots of aspects to this (similar to Swing in Java)

Introduction to Visual C++

Chapter 1

The .NET Framework

• The .NET framework is part of the Windows® operating system

• Consists of– Common Language Runtime environment– .NET Framework libraries

• Programming language agnostic– C++, C#, Visual Basic

• We will be using C++

C++ in Visual Studio 2005• Two modes

– Native – programs run directly on the CPU• Microsoft Foundation Classes (object oriented)• Windows API (more like C than C++)• Applications are unmanaged (programmer responsible for

dynamic memory deallocation)

– CLR – programs run in a virtual environment (like Java)• Windows Forms from the .NET framework• Applications are managed (garbage collector)

• We will look at all but, realistically it won’t make a world of difference so our concentration will be on MFC (object oriented)

Common Language Runtime• Implements a standard known as “C++/CLI”

– C++ Common Language Infrastructure– This is similar to the Java virtual machine– “standard” means

• Programs can easily implemented making C++ programs portable across architectures and operating systems

• Programs of different languages (C++, C#, VB) can be easily combined into a single application

• Applications can exercise a high degree of security

• Microsoft C++, C#, and VB programs compile into MicroSoft Intermediate Language (MSIL)– Similar to Java byte code

Lay of the Land

Hardware

Operating System

Native C++

.NET framework

Managed C++

MFC CLR

Native C++

Windows (visual) programming• Programs are typically (should be!) divided

into two parts– The Graphical User Interface (GUI)

• You will get lots of help from the Visual Studio 2005 development environment with this part

– The business logic• You’ll have to write this part yourself

• Why should we divide a program like this?– Because doing so allows us to change the GUI

without changing the business logic (portability)

C++• Looks syntactically similar to Java

– This can be either good or bad• ISO/IEC 14882 standard defines C++

– If you adhere to the standard your code will compile on any compiler

– In general, your business logic should adhere to the standard

• There is no generally accepted GUI standard– There are some cross platform APIs (OPENGL, JUCE, FTK,

others)– C++/CLI extends the ISO standard to include support for

the .NET framework– MFC is an add-on library and therefore not standard

Two user interface modes of C++• Console applications

– These are simple command line UI applications– Concentration is on the business logic– Smaller, faster, easy to write– Good for developing algorithms– Typically single threaded, deterministic,

synchronous execution

• GUI applications– More or less the opposite of the above

Visual Studio 2005

• Integrated Development Environment– Similar (in function) to Eclipse or NetBeans for

Java– Unlike Java (Swing, AWT) it’s virtually impossible

to develop a C++ GUI based application without an IDE

– Editor, compiler, linker, librarian, debugger, source code repository, and more…

• I can supply you with a copy of Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio 2005 notes• Object (.OBJ) files have nothing to do with

object oriented programming• Visual Studio 2005 is not backwards

compatible with previous versions of Visual Studio (2003, 2002, .NET, …)

• When you create your projects pay very close attention to what you are doing– If you make a mistake you will have to start over –

it’s virtually impossible [for a beginner] to change some things

Let’s try it

• Console applications (pages 13 – 27)– Native mode, pre-defined version– Native mode, programmer-defined version

(empty project)– CLR mode, pre-defined version

• GUI applications (pages 28 – 36)– Native mode, MFC– Managed mode, CLR

Homework assignment• Install Visual Studio 2005 on your personal computer• Recreate all projects from pages 13 – 36 on your

computer • Turn in a [short] write-up describing the experiences

including– Failures– Successes– Unresolved issues– Resolved issues

• Due beginning of next class meeting