Hi, I have to write a two player chess game for school and if my partner and I implement GUI , we will get extra credit.
I was looking into allegro and .NET and was wondering if there is any GUI that is easy to learn and setup.
It doesn't need to be fancy. I wouldn't like to dabble in 3D or advanced graphics.
A simple 2D chess board and pieces will be satisfactory.
I'm using VS 2010 Express.
ps, I'm new to c++ and I've never used GUI before. Do you think completing this program with GUI is reasonable in about 2-3 weeks?
Well, it should actually be really simple for the graphics because you want to have a bitmap for all the pieces (pawn, rook, bishop, Knight, Queen, and King) and of course the board (white square, black square). I wouldn't even get too complicated with it, into a back buffer the chess board and then draw the pieces on top based on the current board setup.
So you would focus more so on WM_PAINT and using that instead of anything else. Another way would be to create static windows for each board spot with a background color of black or white, then draw on it if you have a piece there but that might be too much for something this simple.
Like I said, I would focus in on using WM_PAINT and drawing the bitmaps on fixed locations.
Agreed with William, but just so you know WM_PAINT is NOT C++ it is Windows API. So therefore you need to #include <windows.h> when using anything Win API.
I'm sure if OP knows what WM_PAINT is, he know's how to use Win32 :D
Though now that I actually read it, he says he hasn't done any GUI. So OP, I'd go check out MSDN and follow their tutorial for creating a window and make sure you understand the functions going into it. Spend a night on that, and then you should be good to using the rest of the API to design your GUI
A few days ago I knew nothing about Win32 and I've been studying pretty hard since then. I have to say, I don't think I could make a chess game in 2-3 weeks.
But, it is extra credit, so that makes me guess that you've at least been introduced to it.