51 replies to this topic

[BINNY88]

How do the developers design new & stylish interfaces,with curved lines & random shapes?The usual ones are rectangles & boxes

[LukeyJ]

I don't have a comprehensive answer on this. However, you can use C++ in conjunction with OpenGL, or directx which are for rendering graphics from various primitive shapes (shapes that you combine to make larger and more realistic objects). These can be done in a window or full screen and can be 2D and 3D. These are used often for games but can be used for anything.

DirectX is M$ only, OpenGL is multi platform. You'll need a basic understanding of WinAPI to start, if you are developing for Windows. There is a decent tutorial on OpenGL in the tutorials section.

[WingedPanther]

There are probably as many ways to do that as there are GUI toolkits. The easiest way is to create a square where part of it is transparent, so the desktop shows through.

[BINNY88]

LukeyJ said:

I don't have a comprehensive answer on this. However, you can use C++ in conjunction with OpenGL, or directx which are for rendering graphics from various primitive shapes (shapes that you combine to make larger and more realistic objects). These can be done in a window or full screen and can be 2D and 3D. These are used often for games but can be used for anything.

DirectX is M$ only, OpenGL is multi platform. You'll need a basic understanding of WinAPI to start, if you are developing for Windows. There is a decent tutorial on OpenGL in the tutorials section.

Well,Thats a start
Thanks

[BINNY88]

WingedPanther said:

There are probably as many ways to do that as there are GUI toolkits. The easiest way is to create a square where part of it is transparent, so the desktop shows through.

Thanks.I have heard of gui toolkits.Are there any free ones available?

[WingedPanther]

There are several, including wxWidgets, FLTK, QT, GTK++, and others. The licenses vary widely between them (some cannot be used with closed-source applications, others require a purchased license, etc.

[carly]

You don't need any GUI toolkits.
Everything is included into Win32 api (easy for such basic things like irregular shaped controls)

[BINNY88]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions

[dargueta]

Aren't you the Turbo C guy? This would be kinda difficult in a DOS box.

[outsid3r]

To draw great application interfaces you should use undoubtly XAML from .NET. With XAML you can just do everything that you desire in an application interface, from simple window's controls to 3D embedded objects, control templates (controls build from the root by you), almost everything that you imagine, and it's easy to learn! The traditional windows form applications are over now, XAML is the future of window's applications and also XAML allows to make your application to work like a website, so you can use your application both as software or website! For now it's the most powerfull language to build interfaces. XAML has all the libs that are used to build Windows Vista interface.

[dargueta]

And XAML is not entirely cross-platform.

[outsid3r]

And maybe you're wrong.

Microsoft goes cross-platform with Silverlight (formerly Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere or WPF/E)