wxWidgets: The Library I Discovered Was a Complete Workshop for C++ Developers

From searching for a true Assembly editor… to discovering one of the most mature and powerful C++ libraries

For some time now, I have been working on an idea that I consider very important to me: designing a specialized editor for Assembly language.

I do not want an ordinary text editor with some syntax coloring and autocomplete added to it, then simply call it an Assembly editor.

And I do not want just a nice-looking interface that launches NASM or GAS in the background.

What I want is a tool that truly understands the nature of this language.

A language where we deal almost directly with:

• Registers

• Instructions

• Opcodes

• Memory

• Addresses

• ABI

• Calling conventions

• Object files

• Linkers

• The processor itself

• And ultimately… machine language

A programmer working with Assembly does not merely need a place to type text.

They need a complete working environment sitting between them and the processor.

And that is where the story began.

I Got Tired of Collecting My Tools from Ten Different Places

Anyone who works with Assembly for a long time knows this problem.

One excellent feature exists in a general-purpose editor.

Another feature exists on a website.

A disassembly tool is found in a separate program.

An opcode reference is on another website.

Register inspection exists in a different debugger.

A binary viewer is somewhere else.

A hex editor is another tool.

An encoder or decoder may exist as a small project on GitHub.

Intel documentation is buried inside massive PDF manuals.

AMD documentation is in another collection of files.

Then there is a separate terminal.

Then CMake.

Then NASM.

Then the linker.

Then the debugger.

And all the time, you are moving between all these tools.

After a while, I asked myself:

Why shouldn’t everything an Assembly programmer needs exist in one place?

Not because the existing tools are bad.

But because most of them are simply not specialized for this exact task.

That is where the idea of the editor started.

And today, I believe this editor may become more than just a standalone application. It could eventually become the foundation of the development tools environment for ForgeVM.

Before Writing the Editor… I Had to Choose the Library

This was a very important decision.

I do not want to build a project that survives for only one or two years.

I want a foundation on which I can build tools that continue expanding for many years.

So I studied and experimented with several libraries, including:

SFML 3.1

and

SDL3

and

wxWidgets 3.3.3

Each of them is an excellent library within its own field.

SFML is very elegant, clear, relatively modern in style, and enjoyable to use in C++.

SDL3 is extremely powerful, low-level, excellent for games, multimedia, and relatively direct interaction with the system.

But I was not building a game.

And I was not merely looking for a window in which to draw graphics.

I am building a Desktop Development Tool.

An editor.

Menus.

Toolbars.

Docking windows.

Dialogs.

File management.

Code editing.

Build output.

Process execution.

Search.

Configuration.

Debugger interfaces.

Panels.

Trees.

Tabs.

And a very large number of desktop-oriented tools.

That was when wxWidgets began to appear very differently to me.

Then I Discovered That wxWidgets Is Not Just a GUI Library

This was the most important point.

Before working with it deeply, I obviously knew about wxWidgets, but I had not fully appreciated its real scale.

After working with it, my view changed.

wxWidgets is not merely a library for drawing windows.

It is much closer to a complete application framework for C++ desktop software.

And the more I progressed in designing the editor, the more I discovered that things I expected to write myself already existed within the library or its ecosystem.

That matters tremendously.

Because the difference between a small project and a serious one is not the number of lines of code.

The real difference is:

How many structural problems have already been solved maturely before you start reinventing them yourself?

One of the Best Ideas in wxWidgets: Use the Native System Itself

One of the things I really appreciate about wxWidgets is its philosophy of working with operating systems.

It does not always try to draw an entirely separate visual world on top of the system.

Instead, it relies as much as possible on native controls provided by the operating system.

That means an application on Windows feels like a Windows application.

On macOS, it integrates naturally with macOS.

On Linux, it works with the appropriate graphical environment in a natural way.

This is extremely important to me.

I do not want ForgeVM tools to look like foreign applications inside the operating system.

I want them to feel like a natural part of it.

Windows + Linux + macOS

For me, this was a non-negotiable requirement.

I am not designing the tool for only one operating system.

My goal is for the ForgeVM environment and its primary tools to work on all three major platforms:

Windows

Linux

macOS

wxWidgets has a very long history in this area.

You can write a very large portion of the program once, then bring it to the other systems while preserving a look and behavior that remain close to the native platform.

For a large tooling project, this is not merely a programming convenience.

It is a strategic advantage.

Then I Found a Treasure Called wxStyledTextCtrl

If you want to build a real code editor, this point alone is enough reason to study wxWidgets seriously.

The wxWidgets ecosystem includes:

wxStyledTextCtrl

which is built on top of the well-known Scintilla editing engine.

Suddenly, you have the foundation of a real code editor—not just a text box.

You can work with features such as:

• Syntax highlighting

• Line numbers

• Code folding

• Indicators

• Markers

• Selection

• Brace matching

• Auto completion

• Call tips

• Multiple styles

• Margins

• Caret management

• Search

• Replace

• Undo / Redo

• Large source files

At this point, the editor I had imagined started to become realistic.

Instead of spending months building a text editing engine, I could start from a mature one and focus my effort on what makes my project different:

understanding Assembly itself.

This Is Where the Real Fun Begins

Imagine an Assembly editor that, in the future, when you place the cursor on:

vaddps zmm0, zmm1, zmm2

can immediately show you:

• The instruction type

• The ISA extension

• Accepted registers

• Encoding

• Opcode

• EVEX prefix

• ModRM format

• Affected flags

• Supporting processors

• Performance notes

• Latency

• Throughput

And perhaps even generate the actual machine bytes.

And in the opposite direction, you enter:

62 F1 74 48 58 C2

and the editor tells you what instruction those bytes represent.

At that point, we are no longer talking about a text editor.

We are talking about an:

Assembly Intelligence Environment.

That is exactly the kind of tool I hope can eventually become part of ForgeVM.

wxAUI: When the Tool Starts Turning into an IDE

Any serious development environment needs docking panels.

An editor in the center.

A project tree on the left.

Registers on the right.

Build output at the bottom.

A disassembly panel.

A memory viewer.

A symbol browser.

Diagnostics.

A terminal.

This is where:

wxAUI

comes in.

It helps create interfaces with:

• Dockable panes

• Toolbars

• Tabbed interfaces

• Rearrangement

• Floating panels

• Layout management

In other words, you can build a real workspace instead of a rigid static window.

And that is exactly what developer tools need.

wxWidgets Understands That Desktop Applications Are Bigger Than a Button and a Window

The deeper I went, the more I found features that almost every large desktop application eventually needs.

Dialogs.

Menus.

Toolbars.

Status bars.

Trees.

Lists.

Grids.

Notebooks.

Splitters.

File dialogs.

Clipboard.

Drag and drop.

Printing.

Timers.

Threads.

Processes.

Sockets.

File systems.

Configuration.

Events.

Images.

Icons.

Fonts.

Internationalization.

This is where the experience behind the library becomes obvious.

You do not feel like you are dealing with a project that started yesterday to solve one narrow problem.

You feel like you are working with decades of experience in building desktop applications.

Launch NASM from Inside the Editor?

Natural.

Launch GCC?

Natural.

Launch a linker?

Natural.

Capture stdout and stderr?

Possible.

Create and monitor a process?

Possible.

Display diagnostics inside a panel?

Possible.

Connect an error message to the corresponding source line?

That becomes the specialized part you build yourself.

This is a critical idea.

A good framework does not build your project for you.

It removes thousands of secondary problems from your path so that you can focus on the core problem that makes your project unique.

This Is Why I Think Many C++ Developers Underestimate wxWidgets

Over time, certain names become the first answer that comes to mind.

In the world of GUI development with C++, for example, when people hear:

Desktop + C++

the first answer for many is:

Qt

And Qt is unquestionably a remarkable, powerful, and mature ecosystem.

But the problem is that some developers behave as if:

Qt is the only choice.

That is simply not true.

wxWidgets deserves to be among the first options seriously studied by a C++ developer.

You do not have to choose it every time.

But in my opinion, it makes little sense to be a professional C++ desktop developer and not know wxWidgets properly.

It Is Not Simply a Free Version of Qt

This distinction is important.

I do not like describing wxWidgets as:

Qt, but free.

That description reduces the value of both libraries.

Each has its own philosophy.

Qt has an enormous ecosystem, excellent technologies, QML, Qt Quick, and a very large set of tools and components.

wxWidgets has a different philosophy.

In many respects, it is closer to:

A C++ desktop framework that tries to integrate with the operating system instead of creating a separate world above it.

And that may be exactly what some projects need.

Licensing Is Also an Important Advantage

In open-source projects—or tools that may later evolve into products—licensing becomes part of the engineering decision.

wxWidgets is well known for its very flexible license, making it comfortable to use in many kinds of both open and closed-source projects.

This is not a small issue.

The framework decision you make today can become a commercial and strategic decision five years later.

Is wxWidgets Perfect?

Of course not.

No library is.

You may encounter:

• Complexity in build configuration

• Differences between toolchains

• Details that require deeper understanding on Windows

• Parts of the API that reflect the long history of the library

• Interfaces that may need additional care if you want a very modern visual style

• Documentation that sometimes needs to be read more than once to understand the full picture

Personally, I struggled during some build and linking stages, especially with MinGW and static/shared configurations.

But I learned something important:

Initial difficulty does not mean weak technology.

Sometimes it means the opposite.

You are dealing with a large system because it gives you large capabilities.

Mature Libraries Should Not Be Judged by the Beauty of the First Example

There is a common trend in modern programming.

We see a library with:

Window window;
window.show();

and immediately say:

Amazing!

Then we start a project containing hundreds of thousands of lines of code and discover that simplicity in “Hello World” does not necessarily mean strength in the fifth year of a project's life.

I have started looking at libraries differently.

I ask:

What happens when the project becomes large?

How will I manage windows?

How will I manage events?

How will I build toolbars?

How will I build an IDE layout?

How will I manage files?

How will I launch processes?

How will I handle multiple operating systems?

How will I keep the project maintainable?

That is where mature libraries reveal their true value.

C++ Does Not Always Need Web Technology to Build a Modern Interface

Sometimes today we feel that every user interface must contain:

A browser engine.

HTML.

CSS.

JavaScript.

Node.js.

Dozens of packages.

Then an entire runtime just to open a window.

For some applications, that approach is excellent.

But for a low-level tool such as ForgeVM, I prefer the architecture to reflect the philosophy of the project itself:

Native. C++. Fast. Direct. Cross-platform.

And wxWidgets feels very appropriate for that direction.

Imagine What a Specialized Assembly Editor Could Become

My goal does not stop at syntax highlighting.

I can imagine an environment that eventually includes:

• NASM syntax intelligence

• x86-64 instruction database

• Opcode explorer

• Instruction encoder

• Instruction decoder

• Register explorer

• CPU feature detection

• Binary viewer

• Hex viewer

• Disassembler

• Symbol browser

• ELF / PE / Mach-O inspection

• Object-file viewer

• Linker integration

• Build system

• Inline diagnostics

• ABI assistant

• Calling-convention visualizer

• Stack visualization

• Memory-map visualization

• Debugger integration

• Instruction documentation

• Performance hints

• CPU architecture reference

Then later:

ForgeVM Assembler

Then:

ForgeVM Linker

Then the rest of the ForgeVM toolchain.

At that point, the editor is no longer merely an editor.

It becomes the gateway to the entire ForgeVM ecosystem.

So I Say to C++ Developers: Give wxWidgets the Attention It Deserves

I am not saying:

Leave Qt.

I am not saying:

Use wxWidgets in every project.

And I am not saying it is the perfect solution for everything.

I am saying something simpler:

Study it seriously.

Download it.

Build it.

Write a real application with it.

Experiment with:

wxFrame
wxPanel
wxSizer
wxMenu
wxToolBar
wxTreeCtrl
wxNotebook
wxStyledTextCtrl
wxAUI

Then build something slightly larger.

Only then can you judge it properly.

You May Be Surprised, Just as I Was

I was looking for a library to help me build an Assembly editor.

What I found was a framework that could help me build an entire ecosystem of developer tools.

That is a very big difference.

I believe wxWidgets is a great example of a C++ library that does not necessarily generate enormous hype around itself, but once it enters a serious project, the value of decades of development begins to reveal itself.

C++ Is Not Just a Language… It Is a Massive Ecosystem Waiting to Be Explored

There are many treasures in the C++ world that developers may never discover simply because they have become accustomed to the most popular tools.

wxWidgets is one of them.

You may use it and discover that it does not fit your project.

You may try it and return to Qt.

You may choose a completely different framework.

That is perfectly fine.

What matters is that your decision comes from knowledge—not because the internet repeated one name so often that you assumed it was the only option.

And that is one of the best qualities of a true C++ developer:

Know the tools, then choose the right tool for the right problem.

As for me…

The story began because I became tired of switching between many different tools while writing Assembly.

Today, I can see the possibility of building an environment that helps programmers get closer to the processor without becoming lost among dozens of programs and references.

And wxWidgets may become one of the key pieces that helps me transform this idea from a simple editor into a real part of the ForgeVM ecosystem.

Sometimes, the greatest libraries are not the ones that build the project for you.

They are the ones that make you say:

Now I can build the project I had imagined.