WIN32 API Programming with Visual Basic [With CDROM]

by Steven Roman

The Win32 API, or Application Programming Interface, is of immense use in extending the power of Visual Basic. The Win32 API is the collection of functions and subroutines that provides programmatic access to the features of the operating system. It allows Visual Basic programmers far greater access to the inner workings of the Windows operating system without having to suffer through the steep learning curve associated with Visual C++ style Windows...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565926315
• ISBN13: 9781565926318
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 534 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great book for starters

This book in no way is a reference book or a how-to book. This book is designed for people who don't have previous knowledge about windows architecture and windows API.I find this book as a fantastic tool since it gives me initiative and direction to understand the overall picture. I can use the knowledge that I gained in this book and know what I can do with win32 API. I also purchased the dan appleman's book for win32 api which consists of more examples and it is more a reference book .If you have not programmed in win32 before --> this is the book for you.

Meticulous survey of ALL Intricacies of WIN32 for VB

This is a very hard book (for VB programmer with no C experience) BY NECESSITY. Normally, you would like the programming book to have some explanation and plenty of code examples. In the case of Win32 APIfor VB programmer, once you get all the intricacies, you just need to find the API function from API viewer applet that comes with Visual Studio. Why is the book hard by necessity?C and VB have enough differences (e.g. variable type size differences, signed and unsigned type differences etc) to make the interoperability of languages difficult. Add to this the complexity of the Windows architecture itself and C + VB + WIN32becomes much more complex, than just C + Win32, which makes me wonder, why use VB at all, if you are planning to make an extensive use of WIN32. Much easier to code in C or C++! Back to the book. It does excellent job explaining C + VB + Win32 API interaction thoroughly. He leaves no stone unturned. If you absorb the book cover to cover, you can consider yourself guru in the area. You want need anything else than API function declarations. In short, this is a book for ONLY DEDICATED, serious programmer, intending not just to spice up his code with occasional API calls, but ending up with FULL UNDERSTANDING OF ALL ISSUES.

Packed with useful information

This is an excellent book to learn about Windows from a developer's perspective. It has the most lucid explanations I've read on the Windows operating system, covering topics such as processes, threads, synchronization, memory architecture, Windows messages, DLL injection and device contexts. There is a whole chapter dedicated to strings where the author cleary explains ALL types of strings used in Windows (there are very few books that include this important topic). For those who complain about not enough coverage of the Win32 API, *READ THE PREFACE!*. The author states very clearly that the book is "...not intended to be an encyclopedia for the Win32 API...", the goal is to present "...enough information to get an overall feel for the Windows OS and the Win32 API...". I think he went beyond the stated goal. As for the reviewers complaining about the book heavy slant towards C, it escapes me how anyone would want to read about the Win32 API without expecting to find C all over the place. This is not a book to learn VB syntax or VB tricks, it's about how to interact with the Win32 API from VB, so it's important to learn the details about the API, not about VB. Last but not least, do not expect this to be a hardcore guide to Win32 programming, that's something you just can't do with VB.Added Dec 12, 2001: After studying the new .NET platform I realize that this book is sadly outdated. You can still use the Win32 API in VB.NET, but there's no good reason to do that anymore because the .NET framework provides equivalents for just about every API call you can think of, and more.

EXCELLENT VB INFO

EXCELLENT COVERAGE OF THE WAY VB WORKS WITH REGARD TO THE WIN32 API

Great API book that explains details in interesting manner

This is a great VB API book. I think it ranks up there with Appleman's books. But this book is different. It is actually fun to read and yet at the same time it covers the important detail. Somehow it makes the details easy to read and fun.This book does a GREAT job of going behind the scenes in the Windows operating system. There's lots of good information about how Windows manages things and then how to work around this.There is an interesting and informed disussion of BSTR's. The author reviews the history of VB3's strings vs. VB4 and higher strings. He also covers the interesting aspects of overcoming VB's limitations of not having signed numbers. His discussion of two's complement storage was really interesting.Where Appleman is encyclopedic, this author goes into deep detail but makes it interesting. It is not one of those simple books with the focus of "here's how to make 500 API calls that might be interesting."This book is VB centric in that it explains the differences between the VB world and the Win32/VC++ world. Then you get this great feeling of insight as to why VB does the things it does.I recommend this book highly, and also recommend the Appleman books. They're different kinds of animals.