Rolling your own application framework may seem crazy, but with the advent of the web and the need for self-contained applets with a tiny footprint, it makes more sense. MFC has got too huge and unwieldy; moreover, you can't easily change it when it doesn't do what you want. On the other hand, writing a framework from scratch is a lot of work.
Windows++ is a lightweight C++ application framework that lets you program Windows in C++. You can use it as the starting point for your own framework. It contains all the usual goodies to hide WinMain and wrap the Windows API, and you can write the hello, world program in just 20 lines of code!
Windows++ supports both Borland and Microsoft compilers (as well as Zortech :->) and runs on Win 3.1, Windows 95/98/NT/XP. The full DLL is only 84K, and Windows++ doesn't use message maps! Several companies have used Windows++ to build commercial apps—including the energizer bunny screen saver! I used it to build a medical application for orthopedists.
![Download
free Mandelbrot Program [82K]](images/mandel.gif)
Windows++ comes with the entire class library, make files,
and several sample programs, including a Mandelbrot generator
(hint: drag a rectangle) and a program that learns to play tic-tac-toe, eventually drawing any opponent.
Download Windows++ for Win32 now!
Download original 16-bit version
If you want to learn how Windows++ (and any application framework like MFC) works, get my book Windows++: Writing Reusable Windows Code in C++ from your favorite computer bookstore or Amazon.com.
Here's what famed Undocumented Windows author Andrew Schulman wrote about Windows++:
"The nitty-gritty details of how Windows applications frameworks are implemented, and of how Windows programs can hide the Windows API, get rid of WinMain, get rid of switch statements, and generally make Windows code more readable, modular and reusable. This is a brilliant book!"