[Help me] Where to start Windows Programming?

I have decided to learn Windows Programming, but don't know where to start. So I post here to ask you to give me some advice.

What do you think of Programming Windows 5th edition by Charles Petzold? Will this book be a good choice for beginners like me? But this book was published at 1998, is it a little out of date? Are there many diferences between WinXP API and Win98 API? Could you please suggest me some better and newly books.

I took a brief look at C++/CLI, since I've learnt C++ first, I thought it awful! But will it be worth to learn C++/CLI? I really don't want to learn it if unnecessary.

Thank you in advance for your kindness help.

Programming Windows 5th edition is one of the best books for learning Win32 programming. I believe it works with Win2000, so its not all that outdated. There might be a few things that are different, but so far I haven't seen anything outdated in that book.

also you might wanna check out:
http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/

It seems that .Net will be the trend. But I don't want to learn .Net. What do you think about .Net?

Personally I learnt most of what I know about Windows programming from Programmg Windows, 4th edition, a.k.a. "Programming Windows 95". That book describes the basic controls with great clarity, especially the dialogs chapter which was trimmed for subsequent editions.

Yes, from time to time Charles used "old" functions in it, but it still works, regardless of Windows version. I found that later editions focused more on the newer controls, which you can pick up anyway after a few sessions on MSDN Library.

So no, the book you're after is perfectly fine and well recommended. As for your "but I don't want to learn .NET" whine, make your mind up. A professional programmer is someone who can construct solutions to problems using any given language, but by choice the most relevant. If you want a job doing this, sooner or later you're gonna have to bite the bullet.

Learn Win32 with C++. Then go after .NET. thats what i did, and i picked up C# and WinForms in no time. However you'll find that C++ gives you way more power can C# and is a lot faster. .NET languages are JIT (if i'm not mistaken). THey are compiled to MSIL code which is compiled when you run the application.

C++ is the way to go, although it is nice to know a few other languages and ways to accomplish the same task.

Going from C++/Win32 to C#/WinForm is much much easier than the other way around.

Dont be fooled that if it takes C# 10 lines of code to make a windows application it is better, in fact it is worse.

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It seems that .Net will be the trend. But I don't want to learn .Net. What do you think about .Net?

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If you don't want to learn .NET, then dont. You can do GUI programming with the win32 API or MFC.

.NET is easier though, and if you ever plan on getting a job as an application programmer, then chances are high that you will have to know .NET, or Java. If you are programming purely for hobby reasons, then learn whatever makes you happy.

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Originally Posted by bithub

.NET is easier though, and if you ever plan on getting a job as an application programmer, then chances are high that you will have to know .NET, or Java.

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Hmmm...I do plan on getting a job as an application programmer...

Well do a search on monster.com for programmers. I bet 80% of the jobs (not counting web development) use VB, C#, or Java.

.NET is a nice buzzword to have on your resume, but no more than that.
And most .NET jobs out there are ASP programming with some ActiveX controls, not Windows client programming.

When you learn the Win32 API you should pick up the rest relatively quickly. Never limit yourself to a single language or platform, be flexible.
With something like 20 languages used in a decade or more a prospective employer can see (though not all do, sadly) that I can and will learn something new quickly and well enough to use it professionally.
That's far better than the language idiots who never learn anything more than VB and get lost when they even have to work with a different version of VB from the one they learned to use initially.

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Originally Posted by bithub

Well do a search on monster.com for programmers. I bet 80% of the jobs (not counting web development) use VB, C#, or Java.

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Well that's gay.

A while back I got "Windows 98 Programming from the Ground Up". Overall the book wouldn't be great, but the examples are in straight C, and work with mingw. Complete listings (including resource files) are in the book allowing you to see how the whole project fits together. But since it's a Herb book, and probably written in a hurry, it shouldn't be the only resource. :)