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Windows in C++

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  • 12-10-2004 12:53pm
    #1
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭


    Hey all,

    Just a quick question regarding the above.
    If I was to start reading into programming windows applications, where would I start?

    I tried this a few times, but to be clear, would I have to learn coding it through C first, then move to C++ (to get a better understanding of the underlying fundamentals)?

    Would I be better off putting effort into the new .NET languages for windows programming?

    Any help would be great thanks :)


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    #2
    leeroybrown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭leeroybrown


    It's really up to you. I would say that you would be able to pick up C# more quickly.

    You don't really need to learn C to learn C++ but if you learn C++ you'll pretty much know C. Syntactically C++ is based on C with improvements and changes but it's designed to be compatible (excluding all the OO stuff obviously). If you learn C++ properly you'll get to know what is new in C++ and what it replaces in C.

    I'd advise visiting Bruce Eckel's site and downloading his excellent "Thinking In C++" Books. He provides them online for free as well as publishing in printed format.

    http://mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

    If you understand object oriented programming you could get yourself up and running with C++ fairly quickly.

    I havn't donw any Windows GUI programming with .Net but I recently did a C# .Net web project and found C# and the .Net model very easy to get to grips with.


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    #3
    jessy
    Registered Users Posts: 950 ✭✭✭jessy


    If you are unfamiliar with any kind of programming, then I would definitely suggest going the .NET way. Especially VisualBasic.NET ;)


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    #4
    amen
    Registered Users Posts: 2,781 ✭✭✭amen


    there is a book by
    charles pretzold
    can't rememebr the title teaches windows programming from the ground up
    u can get it in either c++ or c#


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    #5
    ressem
    Registered Users Posts: 2,426 ✭✭✭ressem


    Charles Petzold, Programming windows. http://www.charlespetzold.com/books.html

    Bruce Eckel's books in C and Java are a little ... verbose IMO (concurrancy and persistence before hello world?)

    Have you learned any basic C, C++, Java, Net?

    Java and Net are similar in that they have a c++ like structure and share many keywords. They have bundled standard libraries which cover a lot of the stuff that a beginner will want to try out, drawing forms, displaying images, playing sound, sending a mail.
    C, C++ standard libraries don't have this, so MS made up MFC which I wouldn't recommend to a beginner.


    If you want to stick to C++:
    I suggest that you start by downloading dev-c++ IDE from the web and look at the basic windows examples. This will give you the basic structure and windows specific keywords that you won't have seen before.
    Then you can look at the microsoft foundation class samples.

    Otherwise:
    Might as well learn c# or java.

    Never seen or used any free c# IDE's but you can download the framework SDK free from Microsoft, and write your applications using notepad or whatever.


    For Java, if you want to do User interface programming,

    Use notepad and run through the sun beginners tutorial.
    http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/cupojava/win32.html

    After you think you've learned enough, try programming a bit with an IDE like
    Netbeans from Sun is probably the easiest to start with.
    or Eclipse, which looks like it'll be the 400 lb gorilla of Java.
    and learn about debugging and stepping through an application.


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