If you need to parse command line arguments in C++, don’t reinvent the wheel, use an existing library. That’s the kind of problem that seems so simple that it’s obvious you’ll quickly hack it. Then you face parsing bugs, spaces within parameters, special characters, optional parameters, config files, etc. Eventually you’ll switch to a library, so save time and do it from the beginning.

Many libraries are available out there for C++ applications, I’ll focus on two of them : Boost.Program_options and GetPot. Continue reading →

The challenge : update the look&feel of an outdated Borland C++ Builder 4 application, while changing the minimum amount of code, and keeping the same old 1998 compiler… To make things even easier, the new look and feel must be enabled/disabled at runtime.

First, the application UI controls  are straight out of the nineties. To modernize their look without replacing or rewriting them, Microsoft introduced in Windows XP “Application Visual Styles”. The MSDN doc about Visual Styles is not great, but this CodeProject article from Martin Mitáš gives a great overview. Continue reading →