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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-07T10:13:11+00:00

First, some background: I’ve decided to start a new project designed from the ground

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First, some background:

I’ve decided to start a new project designed from the ground up to run on multiple platforms (Windows, iOS, OSX, Linux, Android). Since my background is mostly C++ I intend to write the core functionality using C++11. That being said, on each platform I’ll need to write a platform-specific UI that can inter-operate with the C++ core.

The first platform I’m targeting is Windows (the second is iOS). I will have data stored in a SQLite database as well as user-supplied data that will be entered using a WPF DataGrid (inserting rows, manipulating existing data, etc.). This is my first time working with WPF (though I’ve used Windows Forms) and my first time working with C++ in a managed environment. I plan to make this an MVC-style architecture so in my mind SQLite is the Model, WPF is the View, and the C++ code is the Controller.

My question is this:

Are there any examples out there illustrating how to grab data from a C++ interface and display it using C# and WPF without destroying/mangling the C++ code itself (since it must work on multiple platforms)? I’ve read a tiny bit about P/Invoke (tedious, but works) and mixed assemblies (works, but will mangle my C++?) but Google hasn’t been helpful when it comes to concrete examples (especially those involving populating WPF controls with data obtained via a C++ DLL).

Thanks!

EDIT: While searching for approaches to this problem I came across CXXI. I’m not very familiar with it but it seems like it may be a simple solution to my problem. Any thoughts? My grasp of all these concepts is limited.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Having worked with both XAML and WinForms, I don’t think you’ll find WPF to be feel much more “native” than your WinForms experience. In both cases, everything is abstracted by .Net. But if you want to learn WPF, then go for it.

    P\invoke works just fine as does COM. As for other ways of getting data from C++ to other languages, consider approaching this as an IPC problem rather than a language one. Run one process as the child of the other and look at sockets and libraries such as 0mq/clrzmq (see this for 0mq on iPhone—this for Android) and Thrift to get C++ talking to the other process.

    With sockets/0mq, you can use xml/json/Protobuf/Protobuf-net to serialize and deserialize objects from one language to the other. With Protobuf, you’ll only need to create one set of json-esque data objects and use the langauge-specific tools for generating code. That’ll take care of your data objects across platforms and languages, allowing you focus on the fun stuff. Serialization will work nicely with sql, too. All of these technologies are easy to implement and each has a score of language implementations, making it simple to wire things up to your next GUI.

    In regards to examples, it all depends on how you want to move your data between the runtimes.

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