![]() ![]() If you want to develop a new Windows application using modern C++, there are usually better alternatives to MFC. Your total binary size will increase significantly if you decide to use MFC.įurthermore, MFC is as old as the Win32 API itself and therefore carrying a lot of legacy on top. They go even further and provide you with things not found in Win32, such as window splitters or helpers for a document/view architecture.Īs you can imagine, all these features combined make MFC quite a heavyweight framework. They encapsulate almost all parts of the procedural Win32 API into object-oriented C++ classes. The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) certainly make up the most prominent C++ framework around the Win32 API. Win32 has thereby become a solid foundation not just for applications, but even for various user interface frameworks.Īfter releasing Win32, Microsoft introduced several other frameworks to ease Windows development, all with their own caveats: Microsoft Foundation Classes However, it has two major advantages no other Windows framework can offer:īeing the native user interface API, it comes preinstalled on every Windows version without requiring you to ship additional dependencies.įurthermore, Microsoft has been keeping the API stable for more than 25 years, even when transitioning to 64-bit processors. It even predates the first C++ standard by a few years.Īs such, don’t expect any fancy OOP classes or templates.Īll you get is a purely procedural C interface, whose manual resource management and lack of encapsulation can make your life unnecessarily difficult in 2020. The Win32 API is probably the longest-living user interface framework still in use, with its initial release through Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 and its origins dating back to Windows 1.0 for 16-bit processors of 1985. Through the jungle of Windows frameworks.However, if your goal is to write a multiplatform application, you are probably looking for something like Qt or even Electron (if you don’t mind the umpteenth Chrome installation on your computer). If that also applies to your situation, welcome aboard!Įven if not, this post may show you some interesting Windows frameworks to look at. You only want to do the job once, and therefore need a framework that is not going to be abandoned tomorrow.You want to create a familiar and functional user interface by using the operating system’s UI components instead of reinventing the wheel.You don’t know if your customer’s computer is brand new or 20 years old, but you can be sure that it’s running Windows (welcome to the world of industrial manufacturing).You need to send your customer a small and self-contained application which should just work without any installation. ![]() Well, if you are working at a company like ENLYZE, there are plenty of good reasons to do so: Why should anyone write a new application using ‘90s technology like Win32 API in 2020? Let’s start with the obvious question right away: This is the first part of a three-part series on Win32 development: ![]()
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