Thread: Ulrador: Direct interface to Win32 API?

Well, I don't consider myself to be an authority on the subject, but i'll give you my thoughts on the matter.

The windows API is obviously a set of functions that you can use for programming Windows applications. The API caters for quite a few things from GUI implementation through to multithreading and networking. MFC is a set of C++ classes that wrap up the Win32 functionality into a supposedly more user friendly interface. If you look at the source to MFC you'll see that it does all the calling of the WIndows API for you. Personally, i really dont like using MFC, I prefer to make the calls to the windows API directly in my code.

So what i mean is, my code has API function calls listed inside, rather than having MFC code (takes out one layer of abstraction).

are you implying that that....

what i am saying is that i prefer to interface directly with the windows API rather than having another bunch of function calls do it for me just for ease of use. The added bonus is that you dont have to worry about MFC Dlls (even though this isn't realy a problem these days).

Apps that are written using MFC tend to be a little slower than apps that dont, but you'll really only notice that on resource-intensive applications. i noticed a difference while writing a raytracer.... the straight win32 version was quite noticably faster than the MFC version.

Direct calls to the API will always be that little bit faster than using any kind of wrapper.

Ultimately, it is just a matter of preference. I prefer not to use MFC. I also think that learning to call the API yourself will mean that you are better equipped to deal with pitfalls in the windows API and MFC.

BTW, the name's "Uraldor", not "Ulrador"

hope that helps!
U.

PS. if you want to ask me questions, email me directly rather than posting here, as you might bother some other people.