Question

With few years of experience with Java I decided it’s time to take the time and learn C++. I just compiled and run my first C++ with eclipse (of course) and would like to take it one step fw – I wish to build a GUI.

Question: what GUIs are available to C++, something that is an open-source and runs on Mac and eclipse.

Answer 1

Some have mentioned Qt, some wxWidgets.

A quick rundown on crossplatform gui toolkits that you could try:

1. Qt: Looks appropriately native on whichever platform you use it on. It has its own build system however, which doesn’t always like to play nicely with others. If you want the “beginners” experience in making a GUI with Qt, I recommend Qt Creator. It’s a standalone IDE built by the developers of Qt.
2. wxWidgets: While Qt looks native (it tries its best to emulate the look and feel of the OS you are running on). wxWidgets is native. That is, it uses the GUI elements provided by the operating system. Last I looked at wxWidgets the C++ library was falling behind as far as modern development practices go. You are possibly more likely to learn bad programming habits from this library.
3. gtkmm: This is from the same guys who make the GIMP and Gnome, which as a MacOS user probably doesn’t mean a lot to you. They don’t try nearly as hard to fit in as wxWidgets and Qt. However, they probably have the most modern C++ library. They have done a lot of work to use modern C++ development practices. This can be helpful for a new programmer, as you are less likely to learn bad habits from them. On the downside, you’ll get thrust into the land of templates and function pointers and such.

Those are the big ones with the most momentum behind them. There are countless others to also consider.