qt is not that difficult to work with. I have tried some gui tool kits for c++ and this is my experience in terms of c++
Qt
For c++ development and gui's i would overwhelmingly favour Qt instead of alternative libraries like win32 api, Microsoft foundation classes, etc.
Advantages
- qt is cross platform and can be used on windows, linux, symbian, windows ce, mac osx
- qt is not that difficult to learn. If you understand the basics of c++ classes and some template programming
- qt is used to professionally create guis. I don't recall exactly but i think autodesk maya and adobe photoshop may be using qt for their gui's
- qt4 has more than just gui programming ie it has libraries for networking, internationalisation, phonon for video and audio, animation framework, etc etc
Disadvantages
- it's not a native library so your application would be larger than if you used win32 api but even then i still think its smaller than .net run time
To start learning qt now
- find the book c++ gui programming using qt4 second edition. or another good resource
- download the qt sdk for visual studio 2008
- download the qt visual studio addin for visual studio 2008
- create a new qt4 project and compile and run your first project
C#
i should state from the outset that i am not a c# developer but i know it has some good stuff
Known advantages
- allows you to use windows forms, wpf, linq (language integrated query) etc
- wpf is what you would be most interested in as a c# developer
Disadvantages
- like all .net languages, it is still slower than native applications made in c++
- not portable to different operating systems like mac osx, linux(But remember MOST USERS (90%) ARE RUNNING WINDOWS)
- If you target users of windows xp, you would have to inconvenience them with having to download .net in order for your application to work. To me this is the biggest disadvantage of .net languages since most users i know have slow internet connections
To start learning gui development using c#
- find the book windows presentation foundation unleashed or any good c#/ wpf book
Warning
- i am not an expert in c++ or c# and am just giving my opinion or experience.
- i have limited experience in c#
