Beginning MFC (Prosise) Part III - Now What? :: C++

Hi.

I began study MFC programming from Prosise two months ago. I finished the first two part of the book and will begin Part III. To be honest, I still cannot design a program of *my own* and implement it using MFC.

I read reviews about MFC books including Prosise, Jones, and Deitel. I see again and again that one of the most difficult part of teaching MFC is to *not* discuss AppWizard and ClassWizard. Prosise does it by chapter 4. Nonetheless, Prosise's book is an ideal MFC *reference*.

Anyways, I learned quite a bit from reading the first two part. I really appreciate the document/view architecture. I want to start implementing my win32 console programs into MFC so bad. I can just *feel* it, but I cannot get it done. There are many missing pieces in this puzzle. I can picture the final results, but there are so many missing pieces (how?, why?, what?, when?). I have no idea how to gather all the missing pieces.

I first began programming (ever) as well as programming using C++ last fall semester. C++ caught my interest quick. Learning MFC, for some reason, is not the same. I cannot apply the same formula of *diving in*, which was how I became so proficient with C++ in both design and implementation. I can solve most problems using C++ (except for big projects). One reason, I think, is because there are *too many tools* in MFC. I can say I have seen close to just about everything there is to see in C++. I tried again and again to get apply the same strategy to MFC, but it does not seem to work.

So here I am, beginning Part III from Prosise's book and howing no is lost. What are my options?

I can considering Jones' Introduction to MFC Programming with
Visual C++. If nothing else works, I will most likely go a different direction (Jones) and then return to Promise.

Kuphryn

Might I suggest Practical Visual C++ by Que or isit Qeue.... anyway this is an awsome book... It was my first book I used for visual c++. I also used Jones MFC Programming with Visual C++. That book is good as well but it pretty much has you writing apps without the wizard at all. Practical visual C++ has you using the wizard immediately. Practical Visual C++ is the best beginner level book I have ever seen.

Anyway I have been programming windows on a professional level now for about a year now and about 2 years prior to that on my own for fun. What I can recommend is that you learn how to use your msdn help files. Press F1 with the cursor over a certain object say CListBox and the help files take you directly to the related help files. Also study the MFC Objects hierarchy and try to understand their roles. Whenever I am working on an MFC application I keep the help files open to reference the classes and their members...o yeah the gazillion Microsoft defined constants and data types...

Don't get discouraged and remember that the MFC is just a tool and like any sophisticated tool it takes training to learn how to operate it effectively.

I believe that most of us felt the same way in the beginning as you do right now. The MFC can be overwhelming but you got to conquer one class, one member function at a time.....

Good luck....

Thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it.

I will never give up learning and mastering MFC to the best of my ability. I can very confident with my C++. I feel it is time I explore new a tool: MFC.

I believe I need to really consider study from *more* MFC books, maybe a more basic-raw MFC book. I need to learn and master (very familiar) with the fundamentals. Maybe I should stay away from doc/view, AppWizard, and ClassWizard.

One of the reason I am at the level I am at with C++ is because I learned, practice over and over the fundamentals until I think of the solution without needed access to a computer. Shortly after, high-level (OOP) and STL came natually. Designing and implementing my own programs was truly the turning point.

I really want to apply the same learning approach to MFC. Thus I feel I should really learn the fundamental of windows programming and MFC. Maybe even API if there is a good book on it where the author uses C++.

Thanks,
Kuphryn

I looked at the API code at http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/ and I understood it easily. It looked just like the kind of C++ programming style that I use with my Win32 console programs.

This is weird. MFC code confuses me. There are too many intantiations and function calls. However, I have no idea what those objects and functions do.

I hear Petzold's API is the best. However, it is in C. What is the best *beginnger* API that emphasizes C++?

Thanks,
Kuphryn

>>I hear Petzold's API is the best. However, it is in C. What is the best *beginnger* API that emphasizes C++?

"Petzold's API" is simply the User mode API functions that are provided with windows. All windows applications use them rangeing from ShellExecute() to CreateWindow().......

All MFC and the other class libraries do is to act as an object wrapper for these key functions....

I am roughly at the same stage as you with MFC (About half way through Prosise) and I understand your missgivings about being able to start coding an application and finish it with MFC......the only thing that has held me up so far is the time I have spent doing straight API stuff in C......this gave me a good grounding, and helped me try figure out what my MFC code is actually doing (Message Processing & Handling, Child Windows, Windows Classes....)

WINAPI books by Petzold, Schildt, Richter & others all adopt straght C as their demonstration language, it is worth following this until you are comfortable with how to create a full Windows app just using the SDK and no wrappers......

MFC is built for fast trouble free application building, but without a sight into whats really going on under the hood, you will not enjoy coding with it much

Thanks for the encouragement.

I love C++. I love windows programming, but I just cannot get to a point where I feel confident solving problems and be able to implement the program as windows based.

I will still have hope of working with MFC. I believe I need to start from the beginner of MFC as when I was learning C++ (cout >> "Hello World." Again, MFC will not get any easier. My plan not rely on MFC become easier. Rather, I plan to be ready for MFC.

I decided to buy Richard Jones' introduction to MFC. I know Prosise
s book is the best. However, that does not mean it is the only way to learn MFC. For example, I believe Deitel&Deitel's C++ How to Program is the best book for learning C++. However, it was not the first book I read. By the time I read it, I was able to gain so many insights "advices" that they give because I understood the fundmentals of C++.

I will apply the same learning approach to MFC. I really should learn API first, but I feel MFC is very learnable. It is just that MFC is huge, and so I have trouble focusing and learning everything at once. For example, looking about at C++, I am impress with myself knowing C++ is itself huge. I learned C++ in two months.

Kuphryn