I just don't see the point anymore.
When I first got excited about C++ and the power it could give me, I immediately abandoned Visual Basic and learned a decent amount of WINAPI. I still feel some kind of fun for WINAPI, but I don't see the point in using it anymore. All these new exciting frameworks like Qt and .Net give so much ease of coding and power to the programmer, and supports the new look and feel of the operating system. It has so many different components and utility classes to handle everything, and to ensure that it looks modern. WINAPI now seems so inferior. For some reason, I feel like using WINAPI. but I feel it is a waste of time.
I'm not one to malign other frameworks like Qt and .NET. In fact, I appreciate almost all frameworks, languages, and operating systems. It's just that since I first began to learn programming, I always had the dream of developing my own programming language, framework, and even my own operating system. The present day framework are so enormous and designed by experts so far more intelligent than me, this dream just seams foolish. I mean, it's like I have to implement all the special new controls myself if I am to use WINAPI.
I haven't tried it out on this new system, but if I use pure WINAPI functions to create a button on the screen, I'm guessing it will look standard. And I'm guessing pure WINAPI will not even support all the more sophisticated controls. I'd implement them myself if this was years ago, and I had the ability back then, but how can I possibly compete now? It's not even a matter of money. I just want to create something amazing.
I'm not against Object Oriented Frameworks, by no means. I just want to create my own. The problem is, I don't know how to catch up. And I don't see the point in building everything from WINAPI. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Re: I just don't see the point anymore.
MFC is a light-ish framework wrapping the WinAPI. Much lighter than .Net or Qt. MFC9 (as a feature-pack for VS2008) has all kinds of new class wrappers for all the neat .Net-like controls.
Re: I just don't see the point anymore.
All your desperate speech seems related mostly to GUI things. But not everything in programming world spins around GUI, you know. :)
Besides, even with GUI, your ultimate choice will depend on your niche where you intend to 'compete'. ;) If you feel like moving to portable GUI programming, you better go with Qt or Java. If your competition's most important factor is speed of development, you go with .NET and Java. And all of them have their dark pits you can stumble with or even fall in.
But the most amazing fact is that really competitive product is very rarely created with a single programming language/tool/technology. And C++ skill appears not the very last one you need.
Quote:
but how can I possibly compete now?
Just join a good team. :D
