Which operating system?

[b:6e5687ac96]Windows[/b:6e5687ac96]: Microsoft and Borland both produce high level implementation of the C++ language with excellent APIs (MFC, .NET etc) that helps you create Windows Apps.

[b:6e5687ac96]OSX[/b:6e5687ac96]: Apples X-code have a great API, known as Carbon (ported from the original Apple API); and Cocoa which is the new API for development (ported from NextStep). See http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000024.php

[b:6e5687ac96]Unix[/b:6e5687ac96]: Doesn't really have any definitive standard as yet - mostly depends on the exact machine your using. I've only used ILOG Views, which works (but not very nicely) across Unix systems, Qt is probably the industry leader; but there are many alternatives: http://www.cuj.com/link/subject36.htm?topic=link