Thread: Windowed Applications

http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/

Yeah, I was really shocked when I first saw a 2-page "Hello Windows" program, and none of it was recognizable (standard) C or C++! Windows programming in C/C++ is an advanced topic. Windows requires quite a bit of "overhead" code just to make a re-sizable window that receives messages from the OS. And, the Window API contains a couple-thousand functions, typedefs, structures, and constants!

Most people learn ANSI/ISO standard (text based) C++ first. If you were taking a college class, one or two semestars of standard C++ would generally be prerequisite for a Windows C++ course.

I'd suggest that you work your way through a beginning C++ book (not just the tutorials here) first. With your Java background, you could probably whip-thru a book like Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days in about a week.

If you want a Windows programming book, Programing Windows, by Charles Petzold is the book to get. I own a copy, and just about every Windows Programmer owns a copy! You need to know some C or C++ before using this book. And, he shows you how to make a nice modern user-interface, but you'll need the standard C++ background to make your program actually do something useful.

I do know of one book that goes from-zero-to-Windows in a few chapters: Beginning Visual C++, by Ivor Horton. He uses Microsoft MFC which is supposed to make Windows programming easy. (I don't own this book.)

I do know of one book that goes from-zero-to-Windows in a few chapters: Beginning Visual C++, by Ivor Horton. He uses Microsoft MFC which is supposed to make Windows programming easy. (I don't own this book.)

It's not exactly "zero-to-Windows in a few chapters". The first 12 chapters(500+ pages) are a good overview of C++(it's an abbreviated version of "Ivor Horton's Beginning C++" which is 1,000 pages long), and the next 11 chapters are on windows programming. I highly recommend it, especially for someone with previous programming experience--although I've barely explored the windows programming part of the book. The poster can go to amazon and read reviews to get more insight.

I'm moving in the opposite direction as you: I have a background in xhtml, javascript, php, and C++, and I'm currently trying to learn Java. I have "Ivor Horton's Beginning Java2 (JDK 1.3 Edition)", and there are 11 long chapters to get through in that book before being introduced to windows. I actually abandoned that book several years ago after struggling with packages and then getting bogged down in the chapters on I/O. But, I recently purchased "Java2: A Beginner's Guide"(Herbert Schildt), which is a pretty short book on java that doesn't even get into windows. I'm almost done with it, and it's more cursory overview kept me from getting bogged down anywhere, yet still presented plenty of information.