Quote:
Originally posted by TK
As of the moment I am not entirely sure how much of the MS Windows OS that I will learn. It seems apparent that Win32 is a large interface, however learning how to use a function based on it's prototype, but never understanding the implimentation of the function is a problem for a CIS student. It would be nice to know how the software architecture is implimented.
I know that the API seems to be extensive, but if I spend a long time learning the interface and not studying any of the implementation, and they turn around and change the interface, than I have not gained anything from an academic perspective (mind my spelling, I never gained anything there either...that's why I know).
After I learned C I got involved with the UML. The UML is really a great thing. You can basically deisign and write a whole application in UML and than impliment it in any OOP language. Say I was a game programmer. I would want to target multiple platforms, instead of leaping into some API and just starting to code right away, I might instead want to use a very descriptive notation to describe all of my classes, maintain a bilateral relationship between data and behavior so that I could write some prototypes of the classes and even integrate and test them, follow architectural design patterns and design heuristics. The whole idea is to keep a broad base so that none of the doors shut and suddenly limit your choices. And that Win32 API no matter how extensive, is just an interface. I'm not convinced that anything can be learned by it.
You say that you wont learn WinAPI because you are prohibited from the lowest level of its implementation, and then you sing the merits of UML which would have to be about the highest abstraction possible..........slight contridiction?