.NET And GUI Programming :: C++

Hello.
I posted a topic about GUI Programming a few days ago. I was trying to decide if I should go ahead and take a Visual Basic GUI Programming college course. I am most interested in C++ as most people have gotten from my comments on C++.

With the release of .NET, is Microsoft still using MFC for GUI? I would like to know what is the best approach to learning GUI Programming using C++ and still be able to implement GUI easily using .NET. In other words, I want to know what book(s) I should buy to learn GUI using C++ that would apply to .NET, if not emphasizes .NET.

Thanks,
Kuphryn

>With the release of .NET, is Microsoft still using MFC for GUI?

Yes, but I think quite alot of the stuff MFC was used for may be now done in C#.

>With the release of .NET, is Microsoft still using MFC for GUI? I would like to know what is the best approach to learning GUI Programming using C++ and still be able to implement GUI easily using .NET. In other words, I want to know what book(s) I should buy to learn GUI using C++ that would apply to .NET, if not emphasizes .NET.

I'm not sure how the Managed C++ stuff works for making GUI programs, but you could always get a book on MFC (Programming Windows with MFC - Jeff Prosise) or a book on the plain API (Programming Windows - Charles Petzold). Both these ways of making a GUI program still work with Visual Sudio.NET, but don't actually use the Net Framework.

Many members recommended Programming Windows, The Definitive Guide to the Win32 API -- by Charles Petzold and Programming Windows With MFC -- by Jeff Prosise. I believe the Petzold book emphasizes C, and not C++. That is the reason that is keeping me from considering buying that to strart GUI programming. As for Prosise's book, again, I do not know about the future of MFC with respect to .NET. I want to make sure that .NET and possibly future releases of popular C++ compilers such as Visual C++ and Borland C++ Builder will support MFC.

Ultimately, I want to stick with C++ as a primary programming language. I do not know until when, but I believe it will be a long,long time until someone design a language with the same low-level (C) and high-level (OOP) features like C++. With that said, what GUI programming technique using C++ will give me the most options now and in the future?

Is there any benefit to using .NET Framework over Win32 platform such as MFC?

Kuphryn

>Is there any benefit to using .NET Framework over Win32 platform such as MFC?

I don't know that much about the NET framework, you may want to take a look at some of the links in a post at the top of the C# forum. I think one of the major advantages that is often brought up, is that you can mix languages for different parts of your program. So you could knock up the GUI part of your program in C#.NET or VB.NET and then write some of the background stuff in Managed C++ if necessary.

The main problem with C/C++ and GUI program development is it's not that quick to get things up and going compared with other languages, especially if your not that familiar with the various API's and haven't built up a library to re-use (although doing it in C/C++ will probably give you greater flexibility).

Okay. Thanks.

I am that much closer to buying the book on MFC by Jess Prosise.

Kuphryn