Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition

by Jeff Prosise

Book Overview

A definitive book for developers who want to understand and profit from the advances inherent in C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library, this book explores the basics and, for the first... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572316950
• ISBN13: 9781572316959
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Length: 1200 Pages
• Weight: 5.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 8.1" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Excellent coverage, good advice

I bought this book instead of one of Mike Blaszczak's "Professional MFC With VC++6". I like this author's writing style of presentation better than the chatty style of Blaszczak. Prosise starts with the basics, building an MFC application by hand and then shows you how to automate that process with the Wizards."Wizards" are just code generators, but once they generate the code it is YOUR code and you must understand, modify and maintain it as necessary. This is why I really like Prosise because he explains the basics to you so that when you generate code with the Wizards, it makes sense and doesn't look like 'magic' anymore.I've read about half of this book since I got it and the quality has been excellent. I haven't found a single typographical or grammatical error so far and Prosise's explanations are concise (he treats the reader like an adult) but not so terse that you're left scratching your head. He gives good advice on style and code organization for MFC applications and provides hints on how to achieve specific results without trying to be an exhaustive cookbook on MFC tricks.MFC is a big subject and I'd suggest that any reader be comfortable with programming. Being familiar with writing small Win32 SDK applications helps but isn't a strict requirement. If you haven't programmed in C++ very much, start with Stroustrup "C++ Programming Language", 3rd edition, and then move on to MFC.This book will give you a solid foundation in MFC.

great book from beginner to intermediate users

When I started to learn MFC, I bought many books. Well, after I read all of them, I can create application myself without understanding the concept of MFC. Most of other MFC books just tell you to insert this and that to the .cpp and .h files without even mention what those lines mean. But this book is really fantastic in explaining all the codes in MFC, from the auto included codes done by visual C++ to all the codes that the book tells you to insert. Besdies, the examples of this book are very illustrative. Though the examples are more complicated than other MFC books, the author explains them really well, and from the example, you will actually catch the concept of MFC programming. One little flaw about this book is that it's not written as a reference book. it's more like a tutorial to someone who's new or intermediate to MFC but have some knowledge on C++. Thus, after 1 or 2 years in MFC, you might want to look for another MFC reference book.

Excellent book for developers young and old!

This book covers a great deal of MFC development. The book starts with a little work with how Win32 programming is done in standard C (see, Charles Petzold's Programming Windows for more). The book clearly defines the inner workings of the "windows message pump" and gives the reader a sense of what environment they are heading into.Warning: If you are not good in Object Oriented Programming this book is not the first step. First learn up on C++ and then think about jumping into MFC.The writing is made clear and understandable at a "user level". The code is sometimes not fully completed (and can be obtained from the included CDROM), but all examples are clearily described line by line on what is going on in them.The API's that are described throughout the book will definatly get you on your way to writing a class A application. The writer covers the use of GDI for graphic drawing, Single and Multiple Document interfaces, and works through almost every control that you have available in Visual C++ including Rich Edit Controls and Rich Edit Views. You can learn to print, write to disk, and access the windows registry (and much much more)This books constantly gets passed between friends as they all have begun learning the inner workings of MFC and have left the days of the "win32 console application".The book also includes a nice object oriented hierarchy diagram on the inside front cover of the Foundation Classes at your disposal.Drawbacks: 1. Some examples use the Class Wizard, and other Visual C++ "helpers" which lead to some odd comments in the code, and less "handwritten" appeal.2. The book is HUGE. Pretty heavy, and not always easy to read in a comfortable way.3. Does not give you a 100% understanding of how MS Windows works internally. It has a good introduction, but if you want to know how it all works using MFC to encapsulate the more difficult functionality is probably not in your best interest.- I suggest both this book and "Programming Windows 5th Edition" by Charles Petzold for both C++ "MFC" and standard Win32 C programming. However, with this book you can write quick and dirty applications in no time flat!

good book, but not necessarily for newbies

If I were a practising MFC programmer at the junior or intermediate level, I'd definitely want to have this book as a reference. It is one of the most complete MFC books around, and I like the author's approach of starting off with MFC basics and wrapper classes before moving onto application framework stuff and wizards. This is one of the few books that tells you what's behind some of those macros like DECLARE_DYNCREATE and tells you where to look for it in the source code of MFC itself.However, if you are new to Visual C++ or have never heard of MFC, this is not the book I would recommend. I would suggest picking up Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 6 instead. Real beginners need a book that tells them how to use the IDE, debug programs, and use the wizards. So what if after reading it, all that wizard generated code becomes a blur to you. That's what Prosise and other more advanced books are for.I'm an experienced C++ developer and I had read two MFC books (Beginning Visual C++ 6, MFC Programming by Alan Feuer) and Petzold 5th ed before reading Prosise and I still found it a little difficult reading, mostly because it starts off kind of slow (as someone else mentioned too). The chapter I found most difficult was the one on OLE clipboard/drag & drop.I really recommend reading Petzold 5th ed before reading this or any other intermediate/advanced MFC book. Petzold is more of a beginner's book for Win32 SDK-style GUI programming.

Starts slow and low, ends high and fly.

This is the best MFC book ever. Conversational style, and authoritative reference. He puts logic into the nonsensical, and starts slow (no appwizard shtuff and confusion until chapter 4) so everyone can understand. In chapter 4, he slowly walks you through your first simple program involving Visual C++ 6.0's mfc appwizard. This book was made for those who have no clue about the MFC tutorials (95% of those who use Visual C 6.0) in the MSDN library, but yet want to understand MFC someday.However, know your inheritance of classes in C++ before reading. Reading Programming Windows 5th Edition by Charles Petzold before this isn't a bad idea either, but it isn't required, it just makes a much greater appreciation of MFC. MFC still doesn't stand totally on it's own without the win32 API either, but it comes pretty close. The last word of warning is that it is geared to the Visual C 6.0 compiler. So for those with Insprise, you aren't out of luck (it facilitates understanding 1000% still), just some of the stuff about using appwizards (which, come in handy) isn't going to apply to you. Prosise makes compensation for those with other compilers.At the end, he goes into a pretty good COM ActiveX, and OLE tutorial (and how they apply to MFC) but nothing huge (a mere 220 pages).