What are Lynxmotion applications developed in/with?

Help & Support Apps & Software
1

Hey guys,

I noticed Lynxmotion has a number of wonderful programs out for free/sale.

I was wondering what language and development programs Laurent Gay uses to develop because the applications are simply beautiful!

I understand if this information can not be disclosed :slight_smile:

Reason I am asking is I know there is a simpler way to make such nice applications than including 1-2MB of C++ GUI libraries. But I just can’t find it! My RoboPad (notepad clone) is about 1.15MB and notepad is only like 52KB!

For my current project, I will have to develop a very large windows application and I want to make sure I do it all right :slight_smile:

Oh, please don’t say you use VB because I hate basic languages >.<’!

Thanks,
-robodude666

P.S. How is Magalie? :stuck_out_tongue:

2

Hello robodude666,

well…thanks :blush: …
Magalie is fine thank you :wink:

so, for now i’m using *Borland C++ Builder 6 Professional *
but i plan to upgrade soon to the C++ Builder 2006 version : codegear.com/Products/CBuilder/tabid/123/Default.aspx
or C#Builder 2006
…dunno yet.

3

Thanks for the reply! Good to hear she alright :slight_smile:

AHA! As I thought, fancy $1,000 software for a fancy application. You use the GUI editor I assume? Guess my BloodShed Dev-C++ ain’t good enough :frowning:

I assume, also, that your using C++ and may switch to C#? (C sharp, such a funny name :laughing: whens C flat coming out :stuck_out_tongue:?) I am also going to assume you are using Win32 GUI API?

Thanks for your help! Lets see if I can get a free copy from my stepdad :laughing:

-robodude666

4

I’m using C++, and the borland GUI, one click to create a new Window, 2 clicks to create a button or something else, one click to create a thread…

i’m not using Windows API (directly i mean) as all i need is in the Borland components library, and if i need something else, i add a new free library (ComPort, RX Lib etc…) no more dealing with MSDN and complicated stuff.

5

Brilliant I say! I was working directly with the win32 API in dev-C++ and I was thinking to myself that people must be crazy to do all of this stuff by hand. Its like 130+ lines to create a bloody window with a button!

Anyone wanna donate $1,000 for my borland fund? :laughing:

Thanks for the help there mate! Class A+++ service this place is I say!

Does Borland automatically generate the C++ code for the window? Or does it use its own little library which is included into the final exe? Or is this where DLL files are used? I always wanted to look cool and professional and use DLLs but never figured it out :smiley:

Cheers,
-robodude666

6

maybe you can try the free 30 day trial…just to see

it uses some windows dll and its own dll, then you’ll have to include the used dll in your installshield to distribute you program (only the Borland ones).
you really don’t have to care about the component code (Windows, buttons, listboxes), all component property are listed and you just have to click to change color, shape, caption etc…you can also change them in your code too if needed.

for example, when you start Borland C++ Builder, there’s a blank project opened by default (so if you click “run”, a program with a gray empty Window is running…cool uh ? just one click and a (very) simple program is running),

then click on the button component and click again to the empty window to put the button on it, add the same way an edit box, double click on the button to create automatically the code for “Button1Click” event, add “Edit1->Text = “Hello World”;” in this “Button1Click” function…
click “run” and you first program is done…click on the button1 it will write the text in the Edit1 box…easy.

if you need to change the button1 caption (by default Button1), click on it and go to the property list, click on caption and enter the new one.

if you need to use another button1 event, click on the event tab, choose “OnMouseMove” for example and double click on the blank field to the right, it will create the event empty function, add another Edit boxe (Edit2) then enter the Code "Edit2->Text = “X: " + IntToStr(X) + " Y: " + IntToStr(Y);” it will show the mouse coords in Edit2 when hovering the button1

so, you have written only 2 lines of code for a program with a window, a button and 2 Edit boxes.
In fact you code YOUR program only, NOT the annoying stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

7

You might want to try Qt with a lower tier version of Visual Studio if you want to do some easy drag and drop GUI application design in C++ for Windows. Honestly, I don’t know much about any modern Windows only stuff, I left for Linux around the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). I had a book called Practical Visual C++ which was around $60 and came with a starter version of Visual Studio and a starter version of the MFC library. I remember a problem where I couldn’t use my applications on friends’ machines due to linking issues with the library. All of this used graphical resource-based GUI design. This is where the Free, Open Source, (and cross-platform) Qt library comes into play. If you use that instead of MFC, or .NET, or whatever other options are around now, you can develop full applications without paying for a library (unless this is for commercial use). Plus if you ever develop for Linux you already know how. The Qt classes come with a program called Qt designer which lets you assemble widgets and the applications messaging system, called signals and slots. I.e. push this button and launch this class type thing. You can configure all this without writing a single line. An online tutorial on how to make a simple application is here women.kde.org/articles/tutorials/kdevelop2/index.html

The major issue is interfacing it with your IDE. I know it is more than possible under Windows, you might want to search google and trolltech.org (browse the Qt designer section and class index to see if it has what you need) for instructions. Under Linux, you can get everything for free with KDevelop. KDevelop isn’t out for Windows yet, though with KDE 4.0 probably will have a port.

Though I admit I’m very biased, Qt is one of the best libraries out there. Its missing a few features, like a native arbitrary precision class (fixed in Qt 4.0) and some of the flashier widgets, (check out the SDL or Evolution widgets if you really need that) but it is rather easy to learn and make simple applications.

8

You might want to try one of the free versions of MS visual studeo express.

msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

9

I tried QT back in the day. I really hated it. I spent $60 on the book and disk and still had issues with importing all of the stupid packages. Maybe I was using it wrong, but I was very unhappy with it.

10

I tried Borland and didn’t like it all that much. I am now using Microsoft’s Visual Express and totally love 'em.

11

There are also free versions of the Borland products, the Turbo free versions:

For example, you can download all them from turbomirror[dot]com web

12

Back to the size issue. I have also found that with products like Visual C++, a lot of the time it is not the code generated that causes your program to be so large it is often what library functions you use and how you link to them. However you can substationally bloat your code if you misuse things like inheritence and virtual functions and the like…

Back in the days when I did a lot of development on the Microsoft Platform, I spent a lot of time trying to shrink my programs down. Both for size and startup time. It is easy to call functions that load in tons of stuff, but in many cases there are equivelent functions (although maybe with some reduced functionality) that are exported by some of the standard windows DLLS. For example I believe there were functions basic functions like lstrcat, lstrcpy, and mabye some ATOI and the like that were exported by standard windows DLLS.

Also I believe there are/were ways to link to libraries that made a huge difference. For example you could link it such that the whole library is part of your code or you could have it link such that you link up to library DLLS (like MFC) such that only one copy is loaded when you need it and the actual code is not contained in your executable. But again it has been a long long time since I dealt with that. I also have not looked in awhile but there used to be ways to specify what model your program is (Small, Medium, Large), which could significantly impact your executable size.

Good Luck

13

I made a notepad like clone in C# that was under 25kb and was more feature rich than microsoft’s notepad :slight_smile: