I've never done anything involving GUI before, but wanted to try it. I figured I'd start with something small at first like a simple calculation program before I try to do it with something more complicated.

Where should I start and what kind of programs might be needed to do this? I've tried looking over some tutorials but I'm still lost as to what I need before I start.

One person suggested that I download a GUI builder to help. Is this a good idea or is it better to handle it myself?

Any help is appreciated.

What Platform?

There are a lot of GUI libraries available. wxWidget is a cross-platform free open-source library for developing native GUI
Another is GTK+(with the gtkmm port for C++), which I use is best if your platform uses GNOME as its desktop environment. Though, GTK is also cross-platform free open-source.
If you are on windows, you may use MFC but I don't suggest it.
Its better to go cross-platform with wxWidget.
Find some info about them and get back on us when you get struck

I think that wxWidgets will be a good choice for you ...

Actually it wouldn't be too difficult to learn, it offers you many features and it's cross-platform (and it's well documented) ...

If you want to read a good tutorial about it you should definitely check out this one ...

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.