Thread: about windows programming

  1. #1
    looking for the truth moemen ahmed's Avatar
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    Exclamation about windows programming

    hi, im trying to learn windows programming without MFC , and after a short time , im astonished of the great details that programmer should handles (which i didnt face before in windows as i was using VB and a little bit of MFC) . and im wondering how can anyone handels all these functions and data types - as i cant memorize all these- i tried to write my notes out from books to help me later, but i discovered that i ll write another huge book .

    whats the suitable way to handle this problem (i understand everything i ve road, just cant memorize it ) ??????


    thanks in advance
    Programming is a high logical enjoyable art for both programer and user !!

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    using MFC :-)

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    looking for the truth moemen ahmed's Avatar
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    i psted eariler a thread about MFC vs. WinProgramming , and most od ppl voted for windows programming without MFC. and many ppl adviced to learn it out of MFC ..and gave a lot of reasons(which seems logic for me).. im not refusing MFC i still learn it, just im trying to learn how to program in windows from scratch, for the future
    Programming is a high logical enjoyable art for both programer and user !!

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    learn both. but when you realize that MFC is just as much to learn, you'll see why we said to use the API

  5. #5
    looking for the truth moemen ahmed's Avatar
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    im not offending WinAPI , just im asking about the best way to handle all of these stuff
    Programming is a high logical enjoyable art for both programer and user !!

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    IMHO, just try to remember their purpose. The other information can be looked up if needed (size, data members, ect...).

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    Registered User toaster's Avatar
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    or do what some others do including myself:

    copy from your old code and paste to your new code.
    after that, modify the structure to your needs and add the new code.

    but before that, it's good to plan out the code in an outline format(paper is a good choice)
    think only with code.
    write only with source.

  8. #8
    Registered User foniks munkee's Avatar
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    I realised a long time ago that I would never remember EVERYTHING there is to remember about C / C++ and Win32 API.

    For me personally the approach I have taken is to make some good notes about things that I have come across that you may not find in text books - and basically keep a good collection of reference books around.

    I think a valuable lesson to learn is HOW to find information. It may seem stupid at first, but the ability to come up with the answers using what resources are available is quite an important skill to cultivate.

    And as some of the others have pointed out - just remember the purpose of the function calls, have an idea of what it is they do (it will help you look them up in references later!) - and don't feel ashamed to copy and paste code. Even Petzold said this was common practice among windows programmers.

    And of course, practise, practise! Eventually it just sticks.
    "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
    Now the sun is laid to sleep,
    Seated in thy silver chair,
    State in wonted manner keep."

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    You will find that you memorize things that you use commonly. Everything else you can look up in the manual (or msdn.microsoft.com). The api does make it fairly easy to memorize data types though, they are written using hungarian notation so that you can tell what the type is by its name (for functions, data types, members of structures, etc.) I think the age old feud over MFC vs win API is fairly stupid. They both do the same thing. One is made more for the ms word size projects the other is for the ms paintbrush size projects. And to say that one needs to know the api for mfc is overlooking the fact that you can just look at the docs to get any info you need about a particular class.

  10. #10
    looking for the truth moemen ahmed's Avatar
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    thanks you guys very much for ur valuable advices.
    i think it s ok.......... just i was worry that im the only idiot who cant memorize it


    thanks again
    Programming is a high logical enjoyable art for both programer and user !!

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