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I'm looking to develop a type of system tray/dock application that will run in the background and perform some tasks. I want to target Windows and OSX. After doing some research and based on my own skillset, I'm going to go with C++. It will monitor a specified directory and perform actions based on the files in the directory. It will require a simple form (somewhat like Dropbox) to modify simple user settings.

My question is how I should organize the project. Can I create a C++ dll or similar that I can use on both platforms and use WPF or WinForms on Windows and Cocoa on OSX as just a front-end to access the library? Most of the heavy-lifting will be done by the library so the interface isn't a primary focus. What's involved in creating a cross-platform C++ library?

Thanks.

Justin Chmura
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The best practice is to make a cross platform library. I would stick with static libraries if you can help it. Then create varied applications for your platform specific needs.

It is better to "pull in" functionality from the library, as opposed to writing extensions on top of the library. That way you get to pick and choose what is relevant for the platform.

I would look at Qt for GUI front end. It is by far the best toolkit I've used.

Brandon
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Tom Kerr
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  • Thanks for the input. Is Qt just a GUI C++ library? – Justin Chmura Oct 07 '11 at 21:40
  • @justin.chmura Not just, though I don't know that I personally would use it if I didn't need a GUI. It wraps up a lot of other cross-platform concerns and has a lot of "stuff." It's kind of big, but it is worth it if you need a gui toolkit on multiple platforms. – Tom Kerr Oct 07 '11 at 21:44