Question

I have written all the code for an application in C++. It is standard C++ written using Visual Studio 2010.

I want to create a GUI using .NET. Is it possible?
Thank you!

Answer 1

There a plenty of options, here’s a few off the top of my head:

• Wrap the c++ code in a Windows DLL,
  call the c++ code from .NET using
  p/invoke.

• Wrap the c++ code in a com object,
  .NET can directly use com objects.

• Wrap the c++ code inside some type of
  managed c++ wrapper (c++/CLI), load and use
  that new assembly in the .NET GUI.

Some more exotic ideas:

• Use some type of inter-process
  communication, like sockets. Your c++
  code would have to run in another
  process. I guess you could also make
  the c++ code into a web service.

• Run the c++ code on the command line,
  launched by the .NET GUI. Pass
  parameters via command line
  parameters, capture and parse the
  standard-out text from the c++
  program back in the .NET app.

Edit:
I’d recommend the DLL and p/invoke. The COM object would have advantages over a plain-old dll for passing more complicated types and exposing an object model, but COM objects a pain to create and install/register (even w/ ATL, manifest files, etc). Using C++/CLI always seems more complicated than it’s worth for a lot of projects – but it’s worth learning a bit about it if the other options become too limiting.