Thread: What is a good book for windows programming

I've recently finished learning non-os dependant programming from the book "Teach yourself C++ in 24 hours". And I now want to go onto programming in windows rather than using the console all the time. What sources have you learned from, what knowledge do they assume that you have?

"Programming Windows" By Charles Petzold

24 1 hour sessions. It was a really good book, I'll post the content of each hour:

1: Getting started
2: The parts of a C++ program
3: Variables and constants
4: Expressions and statements
5: Functions
6: Program flow
7: Basic classes
8: More about classes
9: Pointers
10: Advanced pointers
11: References
12: Advanced references and pointers
13: Adavanced functions
14: Operator overloading
15: Arrays
16: Inheritance
17: Polymorphism and derived classes
18: Advanced polymorphism
19: Linked lists
20: Special classes, functions and pointers
21: The preprocessor
22: Object-orientated analysis and design
23: Templates
24: Exceptions and error handling

Appendix A: Binary and hexidecimal (Explanation on bases)
Appendix B: Glossary & Index


It is a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to start learning C++. It assumes that you have no previous programming knowledge, although I had learnt IRC scripting, which in some ways is similar to C++ which helped me a bit and I have already made my own simple maths game. Heres the link to the book on the PCWorld website: http://www.pcworld-books.co.uk/catal...639&group=5035


Can you show me a link to that book on a site so I can see what it looks like. I can have a look down in my local PCWorld store to see if they have it.

Thanks

I really really really suggest that you learn some more than what you get from that book, and most important, that you make your own programs. If you want some free resource I think this site will give you a hint as to what win api programming is about.

What kind of things do I need to learn? I thought I had covered all of the non-os dependant stuff Thanks for the link... I'll have a look at the stuff there

well there are so many things to learn. Dont concentrate on just learning, also concentrate on implementing and on making your own programs. Have a look at the link I gave you, if you find that you understand what is done and you understand what happends and everything then you might want to get Programming Windows 5th edition by Charles Petzold. If you feel you have a hard time grasping what is there, my only suggestion is to use the command line more because the command line has one big advantage that win32 API doesnt have; You dont have to concentrate half your code on making the window show.

Or you could just use C#.... but that's just me.

Agreed. C# is MUCH easier when programming windows apps!

I'd like to finish off learning C++ first, I dont want to confuse myself... I've been making a maths game as well, I'd post the source here but I'm getting rid of a few useless bits.

Petzold is THE BOOK for learning Windows programming! Just about every Windows programmer owns a copy.

Petzold doesn't require you to know any advanced C++. In fact, he uses only C. (You do need to understand pointers and structures.) This does NOT mean that it's easy. Petzold says it takes 6 months to learn. I was shocked when I first opened my copy and saw the first "Hello Windows" program... It's about 2 pages long, and it didn't look much like the C, or C++ that I had been studying. The reason it's unfamiliar is that it's mostly functions, structures, typedefs, and constants, defined in the Windows API.


A couple of other (non-windows) books to consider:
The C++ Standard Library, by Nicolai M. Josuttis. This book should be called The C++ Standard Template Library, because it focuses on the STL, and as far as I can tell, its a complete STL reference.

Thinking In C++, by Bruce Eckel. You can download it free, or buy hard-copies.

None of the more advanced books seem to be as well structured for self-learning as the teach-yourself style books. There are exercises in Thinking In C++, and you can download the solutions for volume 1 (for about $20). Last time I checked, there were no solutions available for the exercises in volume 2.