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I've been writing hobbyist-level Windows programs for a long time. I write in C and much of the work is done by calling functions in the Windows API. These include CreateWindowEx(), ShowWindow(), DialogBox() and so on.

Is it possible to program for the MATE desktop like that? If so, where could I learn how to do it?

I've read a bit about Qt and Python, but those are much different languages and I would be starting over from scratch. I would like to stick with C if possible.

My limited understanding of things is that unlike Windows, there isn't just one primary api. There are various GUI tool kits - GTK, Qt4, Tk, wxWidgets etc. and there are language bindings for each tool kit for most of the major languages such as Python, C/C++, etc. If you already know C and can handle moving to OO code such as C++ you would probably be able to move to programming in any one of the various GUI tool kits without too much trouble. Python is often recommended for its shallower learning curve and relative platform independence - but if you're sticking mainly with Linux, that may not be as much of a concern.

One site that may be of interest to you is www.zetcode.com . They have tutorials on most of the major GUI tool kits with most of the popular languages, databases, etc.

HTH,

Monte

Thank you, memilanuk, thank you very much.

The link which you provided is just what I've been looking for. The first sentence that I read was "...we will learn the basics of GUI programming in GTK+ and C language. " Paydirt!

Glad to be of help