Creating a forms application with Visual Studio without CLR / .NET

Question

I am desperate to program a small chat program. But I am not mistaken in the logic of sockets / background, as one might expect, but in a form containing an input and output text field!

Visual Studio offers a form constructor, however, if I want to use it, I have to use CLR, .NET, and precompiled headers. It makes me use it. I do not want it.

• How can I add the form to my C ++ project in the simplest way, without .NET?
• Are there any good tutorials you can recommend to me?

Even if I don’t like it, I’m quite an experienced programmer - I just can’t stand in the precompiled headers, .NET and most other Microsoft stuff. It makes me nervous.

Answer 1

You can use MFC or the good ol 'Win32 API (not very good, just ol), both of them completely bypass the .NET Framework and CLR

Answer 2

If you only have Express Edition, you have a problem. The best approach if you do not have money for tools is to load a different development environment with the help of a designer, for example. wxWindows and configure it to start the MS compiler.

With VS2010 Professional or higher, there is a custom constructor called a dialog editor that provides drag-and-drop layouts and much more, as WinForms does.