Ultimate++

Ultimate++

Developer(s)	Ultimate++ team [1]
Initial release	2004
Stable release	2015.2 (rev. 9251) / December 1, 2015
Development status	Active
Written in	C++
Operating system	Unix/Linux/FreeBSD (X11), Windows, Windows CE
Type	Application framework
License	BSD license
Website	ultimatepp.org

Ultimate++ ^[2][3][4][5] is a C++ cross-platform development framework which aims to reduce the code complexity of typical desktop applications by extensively exploiting C++ features.

Features

• currently supports Unix/Linux/FreeBSD (X11), Microsoft Windows and Windows CE.
• includes an IDE and a GUI designer.
• uses the open BSD license.
• uses heavily RAII and auto pointers-like mechanisms to avoid manual memory management and even to limit the use of pointers in the code ^[6]
• can emulate^[7] native widgets look and feel. On X11 systems, Ultimate++ supports GTK+ widgets look and feel.
• numerous reference examples are provided.
• standard distribution comes with Ultimate++ sources included, even the IDE ones.
• uses NTL^[8] as template system instead of STL.

Hello World

The following example creates a U++ application with "Hello world!" button:

#include <CtrlLib/CtrlLib.h>

using namespace Upp;

class MyApp : public TopWindow {
    typedef MyApp CLASSNAME;

public:
    MyApp() {
        Title("Hello world");
        button.SetLabel("Hello world!");
        button.WhenAction = THISBACK(Click);
        Add(button.HSizePos(100, 100).VSizePos(100, 100));
    }
    
private:
    void Click() {
        if(PromptYesNo("Button was clicked. Do you want to quit?"))
            Break();
    }

    Button button;
};

GUI_APP_MAIN
{
    MyApp().Run();
}

Criticism

• it doesn't use the Standard Template Library (STL)
• NTL template system semantics are difficult to understand at first since assignment operator in reality gets overloaded to perform a move ^[9] operation and not a copy. This is done for performance reasons and to overcome some STL limitations, but new C++0x standard should enable even STL users to perform move operations with classes by introducing rvalue-references.
• since many C++ operators are overloaded to perform common tasks such as assigning callbacks, understanding the code can be a difficult at first
• there are no layouts handlers for widgets, although Ultimate++ has a system of logic coordinates to maintain relative coordinates of objects when resizing windows. Having three buttons properly aligned and resized on a row without layout managers still remains difficult, though.
• Ultimate++ IDE support for languages other than C++ is very limited. It provides some syntax coloring for SQL and little else.

Software built on Ultimate++

• AWS Truewind openWind - an open-source wind farm design software
• Gastronomie Kontroll System, a point of sale system for restaurants
• WebMap, GIS application

See also

• Widget toolkit
• List of widget toolkits
• Qt (toolkit) - toolkit used by KDE applications
• GTK+ - The GIMP toolkit, a widget toolkit used by GNOME applications
• FLTK - A light, cross platform, non-native widget toolkit
• FOX toolkit - A fast, open source, cross-platform widget toolkit
• wxWidgets

References

1. "Ultimate++ team".
2. http://www.programmez.com/magazine_articles.php?id_article=981 Programmez! issue 104
3. http://www.programmez.com/magazine_articles.php?id_article=1150 Programmez! issue 114
4. Gouvernelle, Vincent (2009). C++: L'essentiel du code et des commandes. Pearson Education France. ISBN 2-7440-2281-0.
5. Getting started with Ultimate++ CodeProject article
6. U++ Overview
7. Chameleon examples
8. Guide to Ultimate++ containers
9. Pick transfer semantics

External links

• Official website