normal gui commands or wxMAX? and form editor

Just thought I'd chip in here... I've been working on a particle editor which I originally coded in maxgui, but as the project got larger I started running into limitations with maxgui and decided to take the plunge with wxWidgets. I'm so glad I did! I'd say it's got an inverse learning curve to maxgui whereby maxgui is easy to learn but starts to becoming difficult to manage in large applications, whereas wxWidgets is a bit trickier to learn but gets much easier overtime.

I'd recommend investing in the book "Cross-platform gui programming with wxWidgets" as great way to learn it.