Thread: Windows MFC. Why are all the books on it from the late 90's?

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    Windows MFC. Why are all the books on it from the late 90's?

    Hi,

    On my course, one of the recommended reading list items is Programming Windows with MFC by Jeff Prosise.

    The last time this was published was 2001, and the only copies I get of it here in the UK are at £75+. All the reviews of the book I have read recommend it.

    Looking for other books on the subject, they to were published around the same time, and since then there seems to be hardly any published books on the subject.

    I was hoping some of you kind folks could explain why this is the case. Is MFC a dead 'technology' or something?

    I always like to get the latest date of publication books for computers etc because the industry changes so fast, so I would of thought that publishers would love to publish a new version, considering the prices it is fetching, hence my thinking perhaps MFC is a dying art.

    Confused.jpg

    Thanks for any information

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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Swerve View Post
    I was hoping some of you kind folks could explain why this is the case. Is MFC a dead 'technology' or something?
    It's no longer evolving. Not dead, but static. Just find the most recent book you can, it should be fine.

    MFC certainly isn't a dying art, it's just that new programmers aren't really picking it up anymore. Everybody is moving toward .NET and WPF.
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

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    Thanks

    Do you think the books contents are still valid? Being 8 years old I feared many of techniques would no longer be appropriate, even for XP.

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    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Most of the old techniques will probably need some tweaking to work with the version that comes with 2008. I would not hesitate to learn it since it is just one more skill you can truthfully put on your resume which never hurts.

    It's a tool and it's not the best one to use in every case but it is a good tool nonetheless. But I also would recommend learning C# and WPF. C# and WPF are not exclusionary to MFC nor vice versa. Learning both would definitely benefit you at some point in the future.

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    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck View Post
    It's no longer evolving. Not dead, but static. Just find the most recent book you can, it should be fine.

    MFC certainly isn't a dying art, it's just that new programmers aren't really picking it up anymore. Everybody is moving toward .NET and WPF.
    That's not true.
    MFC is now alive again and Microsoft is putting effort into updating it again.
    It was static for a long period of time with no updates or just minor ones, but Microsoft is picking it up again.

    Probably the reason why many books are old is because of that hibernation period where MFC didn't evolve at all.
    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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    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Not dead, as much as I hate it Ive had to use it on occasion, but generally I can do everything with the 'normal' API calls or COM.

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    Thanks chap

    It is good to hear it's being given attention again from MS. Things move so fast learning something was wasn't gonna be around 5 years from now wasn't very appealing. Good news.

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