GUI libraries for C++

I want to learn GUI stuff on C++, should I go GTK+ or QT? I chose those because someone from another forum told me that those libraries don't depend on windows OS, and yes I am a noob lol.

QT looks better in windows. QT requires your app to be GPLed unless you pay them. GTK is LGPL for all. GTK is default in ubuntu so it integrates a little better but everybody is used to needing QT anyway.

My informed opinion is: Throw a coin.

Thanks for the reply Vexorian. :)

I use gtkmm. It is more modern c++.
But i would not use c++ for gui stuff.

It is MUCH easier to use a scripting language like python or ruby for gui stuff.
Write your backend in c++ and use python or ruby to access it from the gui.
With boost it is easy to integrate python to c++.

Thanks for the information C2H3NaO2, If I can manage learning 2 languages then I'd definitely give python a try.

Do. It's nice.

Moving on GTK.

If you're gonna program for Windows, the best choice is always the Windows API.
But if you want portable apps, GTK or QT are the choice as you said. QT is a much better designed library (for OOP C++) and has APIs for everything, not only for writing GUIs but requires you to GPL your apps (which isn't a bad thing IMO, but that's my point of view) and GTK is LGPL, so you can make commercial/closed source apps with it. I wouldn't go with GTK only because of Ubuntu which is a terrible (and bloated0 distribution and hated by any harcore Linux user.

I think you meant VCL .

Oh yeah, direct use of windows API is terrible, so we chose a framework. With Borland VCL framework you can chose betwenn C++ and Delphi languages.

Another good option is MFC (microsoft foundation classes) for C++ cause it has a lot of resources in CodeProject and CodeGuru

There is also wxWidgets as a crossplatform gui-library.

I'll second that sentiment. VCL is quite well designed. I'm just waiting to adobe air to gain widespread recognitionand and dvelop all my apps in extjs.

No offense but I don't think any Borland product matches the control VS gives you over the Windows API and direct use of that API will always give better performance (and give your app 100% chance of running with Wine). Sure you should have some small classes to help you (or use WTL or some other lightweight library) but having to use Borland compilers suck.

QT is the best API if you wan't the least amount of hassless. Incredibly sweet documentation, very will desgined (with slots and signals) and its also cross platform

GTK is annoying to code ib (by default its C) although there is a C++ extension for it

1 Month Bump.

QT is becoming LGPL soon.

What do people think of wxWidgets by the way? I've been using them with Python, and was wondering how QT/GTK compare.