I’ve been researching GDI a little and on some websites I’m lead to believe it can hardly draw a few boxes, while on others it can easily be used in an interactive charting application.
So I’m wondering what is used in applications like Excel where there can be a lot movement like scrolling through a large amount of data fast? Could DirectX be used and would it increase performance? Is it used?
Sort of – some of Microsoft’s newer APIs such as Direct2d and WPF leverage your graphics card for drawing GUIs. DirectX itself (more specifically Direct3D) isn’t usually used for GUIs outside of a video game that contains them.
0