new to programming

[Aeturnus]

hello,
i'm new to programming in C++ and i want to learn to program games for windows. the few books i've began reading thus far all teach ANSI/ISO programming. is it necessary to learn this standard before i begin programming just for windows?

thank you in advance

[adrianxw]

You can program with the API in just about anything that will allow you to call a function. To write good programs, a good grasp of your chosen language is a must. For high performance software, you really need to know your language. To often, people rush into their first game or other program and then are here trying to get it to run faster or whatever, and they have 5000 lines of code which is so bad, they would be better off throwing it out and starting again with a proper structure.

So to answer your question, no, it is not necessary, but highly advisable.

[Aeturnus]

ok, cool thanks.
but for future reference, do you rec. any books to help teach me how to program with API or whatever that was to program windows games, after i get done with my basic C++ book?

[adrianxw]

Charles Petzolds "Programming Windows" 5th Edition is probably the standard text. It does assume you are using MS compilers though. Some of the examples don't work with Borland for example.

You will, (later), want a graphics library/solution, but there is no point advising on this now, because by the time you are ready for that, the advice given here will be out of date!

The API is evolving quickly, and books go out of date pretty quickly.

[rip1968]

I purchased Charles Petzolds book that teaches the Win32 API and just wanted to comment that it is in C and doesn't use C++ object oriented features. I was a bit distressed at this when I first got the book having asked the same question How to learn windows programming in C++. Nevertheless it is a good book to start with (though learning the drawing functions before other standard dialogs is a bumber if you ask me.)