Now that I know the workings of the C++ language I've decided to move onto some windows programming. I've tryed direct draw and win32 api, but they were to hard for my level of programming as of now. I looked up MFC, and saw that the simplicity was much greater than the api's mentioned. I saw that creating a simple window could be done in about 20 lines, where in win32 api, it would take about 70. So the question is, is this a good place to start programming windows apps in C++? Thanks.
Im sad to see people go with MFC than win32 APIs.
With the simplicity of MFC come many other problems, which you'll see later. And you lose some control over your application.
With Win32 you could always make your own classes. Thats gonna make everything simple, and you dont lose any control.
I've recently wrapped up my own classes, and i have to say its an easy to make a program now. All i have to do is derive a class, do some basic editing of the code. Very simple.
http://www.codeproject.com/ - a good place for resources, i've forgoten if they have any tutorials.
http://www.codersource.net/codersource_mfc_prog.html
+
google.com - Best resource ever.
Yes i am agree with mrafcho001. I started with MFC. Though I had some qbasic exprience, I felt bad. So I started Win32, the basis of MFC.
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Nothing wrong with MFC, except it is (sort of) dying, thanks to .NET. Once you understand the basics of MFC you will find it a quick and easy way to create the basic framework of your app. It can then be bypassed to create the complex parts as needed.
Makes WIN32 a lot faster to code/develop and helps avoid lots of errors/crashes for the new coder.
Plenty of code examples, conrols and classes out there.
If you require the power of pure WIN32 you can always subclass or over-ride and call the API directly.
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It's pretty much up to you. I've met programmers who thought that MFC development was easier for them than the raw API and vice versa, it all really depends on who you are. Even if you find the MFC is the easiest path of development for you, I really suggest you try to stick with the API for a little longer, because once you know it you'll better understand the MFC and will be able to use it knowing ahead of time what something might do.
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Nothing wrong with MFC per se. I prefer it over pure Win32 as it speeds dev time, is easy to expand upon, and once you get the hang of it, quite simple to use and there are a million examples all over the net for it.
I started with MFC, and then moved to win32. MFC is good for certain types of applications, but I prefer win32 for most of my work. The previous poster was correct in saying that MFC is dying though. I read in an article a year or so ago that Microsoft is no longer updating MFC. Honestly, managed C++ might be the wave the of the future =/
I think MFC is good for an exprienced programer, but not for a beginner. Anybody wants to learn C++ should first master the language itself, then goes for an API. But there is no need to master API, only the basis and how it works. Then MFC can speed up development.
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