Create GUI for commandline program ?

varunb on 2/9/2008 at 17:03

Can anyone suggest a good software that can help me in creating a GUI for commandline programs ? I was wondering if I could also analyse the code for GUI like creating buttons, text fields etc. I want the GUI to work on both XP & Vista.

bikerdude on 2/9/2008 at 18:11

Hi there

I'm no programmer, but I would wonder over to the editing guilds, some one there is bound to know

biker

The Brain on 2/9/2008 at 21:33

The keywords you are seeking are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_application_development) RAD and (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment) IDE.

These sofwares which utilizes both RAD and IDE features are called application development tools. Making GUI's for example to command line programs with these IDE's is drag'n'drop easy. However without writing some code these GUI's are just useless.

You can see list of these tools in here : (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rapid_Application_Development_tools) List of rapid application development tools.

My favourite commercial RAD IDE is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland_Delphi) Delphi and from open source side (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/) Lazarus. Both these programs uses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_programming_language) Object Pascal as their programming language.

There is lots of Delphi tutorial videos in YouTube: (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=delphi+tutorial&search_type=&aq=4&oq=delphi) http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=delphi+tutorial&search_type=&aq=4&oq=delphi

varunb on 3/9/2008 at 13:36

Thanx The Brain. What about VB.NET ? Wouldn't that be better if I use some IDE that uses VB.NET like SharpDevelop ? What would you recommend ? I am just a beginner in designing GUIs. The last thing I did was creating forms using Oracle Forms 6i.

potterr on 3/9/2008 at 14:32

The problem with most development tools is you have to buy them, I have an MSDN Developer license which cost almost £3,000, although I use it day in day out.

What is the command line tool you are wanting to add a gui to?

varunb on 3/9/2008 at 16:04

I am trying to make the GUI for SSRC which is available from sourceforge just for learning purpose.

cattamer on 3/9/2008 at 17:21

I don't know if this fits your learning purposes, but here is a frontend generator

(http://www.objective-view.de/tinytools/wiki/pmwiki.php/Tools/FroG?userlang=en)

The Brain on 5/9/2008 at 12:09

Quote Posted by varunb

If you are more familiar with Visual Basic programming language, then you should consider using it in your task.

Quote Posted by potterr

The problem with most development tools is you have to buy them, I have an MSDN Developer license which cost almost £3,000, although I use it day in day out.

Open source alternatives are just good as commercial ones. And free.

Quote Posted by cattamer

I don't know if this fits your learning purposes, but here is a frontend generator

(http://www.objective-view.de/tinytools/wiki/pmwiki.php/Tools/FroG?userlang=en)

This looks interesting, if you only want make GUI fast without too much coding and logic.

David on 5/9/2008 at 13:29

Express Editions of the .Net suite are also free and allow for commercial projects.