If you release sources I would like to port it to MacOS.
If you release sources I would like to port it to MacOS.
I highly recommend Deitel & Deitel's "C++ How To Program" (ISBN-13: 978-0136117261) as the defacto introduction text for anyone seriously interested in learning C/C++. It thoroughly covers the language fundamentals, usage, the STL, and is overall exceedingly well written. In my experience there is no shortage of absolutely terrible introductory textbooks out there. There's a reason this particular text is used by most major universities for the C/C++ course literature, and it will remain a great reference even after you've gotten some years of code under your belt. I'd recommend Amazon; get a used copy from an edition or two back - far cheaper than the current edition but without any real difference in the core material covered.
If it is just C you are interested in (and, if you're coming from a BASIC background, C is less of a bump than C++, which is an overcomplicated pile of shit) then I'd recommend A Book On C by Ira Pohl and the other guy whose name I forget.
C is a beautiful, simple, elegant language, and it lies at the heart of C++, so time spent learning C is not wasted when you go on to learn C++, which is a sprawling monstrosity of a language.
C/C++ itself is not too difficult as long as you have a programming background. Learning all of the widgets and methods needed to create a good GUI with it is a different story. C/C++ does not provide what you need to create a GUI. No concept of GUI exists in those languages. You will have to rely on a toolkit of some kind. They are usually more difficult to learn/use than the language itself.
My point, you can learn C/C++ but still won't have all you need to create a C/C++ version of SpiroDAC. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Well, it doesn't have to be a *huge* iceberg. There are a lot of nice multiplatform gui toolkits. One of the most popular is Qt, which can compile and run on Linux, MacOS, Windows, embedded Linux (with its internal framebuffer driver), Windows CE, SymbianOS and MeeGo (Intel/Nokia Linux phone platform), with experimental versions for iPhone, Palm Pre and a couple other OSes.
Which is a lot of bang for relatively little effort :-)
Yep, they don't make it easy- that's why I chose VB6 long ago in the first place. Simple GUI together with very fast number crunching and memory access (provided that you stick to simple data structures and a few cardinal rules) and WinAPI support made VB6 a good choice back then.
OK, I just downloaded the express edition of Visual Studio 2010 (OMG). I'm a bit wary of .net, only because Wild Bill & Co. could redefine the whole mess in a way that is not backwardly compatible at the drop of a hat in the next rev. I think I'll clone my hard drive before installation, in case my machine gets assimilated by the Borg; I can click my heels and be back in Kansas like it was all just a bad dream.
Heroic, you mentioned QT; how does it compare to FLTK?
Dean