C++ and GUIs for teaching [closed]

Question

So, I've been tasked to teach a programming course which includes some stuff about GUI programming in C++. I was wondering, what would be the best setup for this? Linux, and GCC are my tools of choice.

I've never done a course like this, I'm a good C programmer but not a C++ programmer. I need C++ because the same course needs to cover OOP, and how hard can C++ be!? :)

Answer 1

If the OS and GUI toolkit are your choice, and it must be C++, and you prefer Linux -- then consider the Nokia Qt API.

It's free, open-source, cross-platform, and high-quality.

Answer 2

groans inwardly :) C++ is completely different from C, and not just about OOP...

You might want to teach them a cross-platform GUI framework like wxWidgets or Qt. But that will require you to seriously learn about them first. There's a good book on wxWidgets available as a free PDF (Cross-Platform GUI Programming Using wxWidgets) -- see http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/0131473816/downloads/0131473816_book.pdf.

The advantage of the cross-platform aspect of it is that you can use Linux and GCC all you like, and their skills will transfer to other platforms as necessary.

(Incidentally, you might want to teach them CMake as well, if you want to go down the whole portability line in a big way...)