Thread: Windows API

  1. #1
    Registered User valaris's Avatar
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    Windows API

    I got a copy of perzold's win32 API and started reading away at it. Got about half way in and needed some clarification online. I started reading only to find a lot of conflicting stories of rather or not the api as a whole has been deprecated? A lot of the older posts say that in vista the API has been removed completely. Is this true? Is it being phased out? Is the winAPI worth knowing at such a low level. I already know how to make c# .net apps fairly well, just thought knowing the API would help me in windows development.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Phased out? They say it's being deprecated but I don't see how. Perhaps new development just using the API but even then that is a stretch.

    .NET is far too weak right now to fully replace the API and if they ripped the API out of Windows it would be like ripping it's heart out. Overnight thousands of pieces of software would no longer work on the machine.

    MS is in an API corner right now and I'm not sure how they are going to get out.

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    I totally agree with Bubba.

    The .NET and MFC stuff is just an overhead of the Win32 API.

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    MFC and .NET are different. MFC is just a wrapper for the api to simplify some of the low-level parts. .NET runs on a VM and is totally different.

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    Registered User valaris's Avatar
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    .net is running on a virtual machine? Does the virtual machine use win32 somehow? Is the virtual machine you speak of the CLR ?

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    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    The .NET and MFC stuff is just an overhead of the Win32 API
    .NET is not the API. .NET is the CLI which is Microsoft's version of the CLR. The CLR is a spec and the CLI is an implementation of that spec. Mono is another impl of CLR which is for Linux.

  7. #7
    Registered User valaris's Avatar
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    Well thankyou sir for the clarification I guess ill keep trucking with win32 stuff.

  8. #8
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    The API isn't deprecated and won't be for quite some time. However, a few API functions are deprecated, which are mentioned in MSDN, so avoid them.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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