Native Windows Application Development Options

Question

Long winded title, short question:

If one wants to develop for Windows but not have to rely on any external dependency (no runtime, thus ruling out .net), what supported, alive and fully functioning* alternatives are there?

Visual Basic 6 is dead, Visual C++ is obvious and Delphi seems to be the prime choice for that, but I wonder if there are any other alternatives?

*as in: Being able to use all the Windows Features like putting an icon in the Notification Area, making the Taskbar Icon flash etc.

It _still_ does, but it is not supported anymore since April 2008 I believe - it could break anytime, and Microsoft may not care to fix it. Also, AFAIK you cannot buy it anymore outside of some funky subscription. — Michael Stum, Jan 08 '09 at 17:14

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '08 at 18:56

8

Have a look at this -

http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi

Glynn

answered Oct 16 '08 at 18:56

Glynn Owen

86
1

Seems to be indeed the prime product for Win32 (apart from C/C++). – Michael Stum Aug 23 '09 at 22:51

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:08

3

D using D compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:08

Troy Howard

2,612
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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:06

2

C (lots of compilers available)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:06

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:11

2

eiffel using SmartEiffel*

(*note SmartEiffel interprets eiffel, and generates ANSI C code, which can be compiled with any standard C compiler. It also generates Java byte code.)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:11

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:03

1

Ada compiled with gnat

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:03

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:18

1

C/C++ with Borland, if you don't want to be entirely beholden to MS.

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:18

plinth

48,267
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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:18

1

Mercury using the Mercury compiler (compiles to ANSI C, which can then be compiled to native code)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:18

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:20

1

Modula 2 using modula2 compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:20

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:31

1

Pascal with FreePascal compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:31

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:39

1

Vala (compiles to ANSI C)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:39

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 21:02

1

Haskell using GHC. Compiles via C or direct to native code requiring no special libraries.

answered Oct 16 '08 at 21:02

Chris Smith

5,326
29
29

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 19 '12 at 08:25

0

I think you should give Qt a try. At least, download the file and run the samples, because it ships with a working example of the Notification area feature as you want.

http://qt-project.org/

answered Nov 19 '12 at 08:25

Ravindranath Akila

209
3
35
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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 18:59

Have a look at this page:

http://dada.perl.it/shootout/

It's a port of the computer language shootout to compile on the Win32 platform. In the chart of languages used, he lists which ones compile to native code (the compiler is listed in bold italics). I did notice that he listed C# and Java as compiling to native code, but that of course is incorrect, so make sure you investigate.

I will list each language separately to allow for individual voting.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:05

0

Awk using awka*

(*note: awka interprets awk, and generates ANSI C, which can be compiled to native code with any C compiler).

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:05

Troy Howard

2,612
21
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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:09

0

PowerBasic

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:09

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:12

0

Forth using BigForth compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:12

Troy Howard

2,612
21
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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:14

0

Haskell using ghc

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:14

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:23

0

Modula 3 using Critical Mass *

(*note: compiles to ANSI C, which can compile to native code using any standard C compiler)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:23

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:26

0

OCaml compiled with OCaml compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:26

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:36

0

Prolog using Visual Prolog

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:36

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:41

0

Ubercode using UberCode compiler

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:41

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:51

0

Goo using Goo compiler (generates ANSI C)

answered Oct 16 '08 at 19:51

Troy Howard

2,612
21
25

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Mar 12 '10 at 07:55

0

REALbasic which gives you the extra benefit of being able to compile for Mac and Linux as well.

answered Mar 12 '10 at 07:55

Andy Dent

17,578
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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Oct 14 '14 at 15:02

0

MASM32 ( http://masm32.com/ ) if you can live with the licensing agreement.

answered Oct 14 '14 at 15:02

Brian Knoblauch

20,639
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Native Windows Application Development Options

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