Mathew Robertson wrote:
[This assumes I understand what you are refering to with the term "design time"...]
By design time I mean an environment which occurs before the module is executed within a process on an OS, during which one can set properties and events ( event handlers ) for "components". The "components" are then usually created automatically at run-time, their properties are set to values and their events are hooked to event handlers in other "components" which are usually automatically created at run-time. Ideally one should be able to create components, and set properties and event handlers for components at run-time as well.
VC++ Managed C++ .NET is very nice but it is even further away from standard C++. In neither do you have to write hundreds of lines of code to do any GUI programming of significance. In order to have a really top-rate C++ GUI library I believe one needs reflection in C++ in order to do the sort of
Not true. It would be great if you had reflection, but it's not a necessity.
I'll show you (in about 3-4 months) that you don't need reflection to set GUI properties at design time. It'll be just like VB, but only better ;)
I am very interested in this and would like very much to see how you will do this at design time. In particular I am interested in how event handlers can be set at design time. All without C++ reflection of course and using strictly the C++ standard, since you are confident that this can be done. My view of event handlers is that any "component" ( see below ) within such a system should be capable of handling any event generated by any other component; which is true of both C++ Builder and Managed C++/.NET.
This can be handled by the FOX library _now_. If a widget is capable of handling the incoming event, then it does handle it, otherwise the event just propogates its way back up with widget tree, or it doesn't get handled.
It works because it uses message maps which are statically defined (-> they are a design time constraint) -> no need for reflection - either the widget has a handler for the event in its message map, or it doesn't.
I will take a look at it, but message maps do not ring a positive bell with me. Nonetheless my mind is open.