Visual C++ .NET Reccomended resources

Feis · 06-10-2005, 08:19 PM

Basically, as summer approaches, one of my goals is to learn how to make visually attractive programs, at least ones outside DOS.

Does anyone here have any good websites/books/anything that could be helpful for a person with a moderate grasp of programming, and no experience doing visual at all? Thanks in advance

PS sorry if I posted in the wrong section

jeffro · 06-11-2005, 01:23 PM

What languages do you know? Do you already know C++, .NET/VS is definitely the way to go tho. I haven't found anything easier for getting up and running building desktop apps. Then again there is Qt designer, but that is quite a bit different all together.

Feis · 06-11-2005, 05:32 PM

I know C++, but I've really only gotten up to moderatley advanced inheritance. I looked online and saw a bunch of books targeted for people who already knew how to program, but I think I just miss this group. I'd rather have a book that is too simplified than one that assumes I know the higher level concepts of C++ that I dont. I was also thinking of doing VB.NET or .COM, but overall I wanted to stay with C++ as I knew most of the basics already.

jeffro · 06-12-2005, 04:50 AM

Ack! Stay away from VB.NET and COM, both are the past. Microsoft is only supporting them because there are so many legacy programmers out there that would raise a stink if they dropped it. Stay with C++ or even move to C# (2.0 is due out soon, and its going to fix alot of the mistakes of 1.x). Unfortunately I can't recommend any books on C++.NET but I can make a few on C#.

Feis · 06-12-2005, 08:13 AM

Ok, I see your point on VB (both species), and I had heard that, and that was one of the other reasons I was staying away from it.

As for C#, exactly how similar/different is it from C++. When I look at the respective hello world's, they seem to be very different:

C#

Code:

// Hello4.cs
using System;

public class Hello4
{
   public static int Main(string[] args)
   {
      Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
      return 0;
   }
}

C++

Code:

#include<iostream>
int main()
{
std::cout << "Hello, World!";
return 0;
}

Theres also the entire thing about C# being M$ only [Mono doesnt really count], whereas C++ obviously compiles on everything (Mac, *nix, Windows) But if you have some reccomended books for C#, post 'em, maybe Ill end up learning some of that too if I have time

redhead · 06-12-2005, 01:59 PM

Think of C# as beeing a combination of C++ with designs taken from java.
It was orriginaly made by MS in order to compete with Java for the ease of transition across severel platforms, but as a MS thing it's still only fully supported there.. Altho Mono is picking up, alot of the system dependant calls are still missing.

I know I shouldn't diss it, but if you're planing on doing real OS independent coding, I would suggest staying with C++, I know at some points it might seem as if the only real material out there is either too easy to learn anything new from, or too hard to even get a real grasp of.
But All I can say is, work on your own projects, trying to explore your current skills and hopefuly expand them, find other opesource projects that kinda look slike what you're trying to achieve, and read the code, to try and learn from that.
All you realy need is a good refference book, which describes all the basics like the C++ resources, and alot of new idears, then you'd rather read the description of how to use the standard function to accomodate your idears.

But remember, it isn't easy to learn everything, it takes alot of effort befor you start to considder your self among the advanced users. Just don't let the small speed bumps on the way, make you lose the sight of your vision.

fp_unit · 07-03-2005, 10:47 AM

Theres lots of books, lots of APIs and even lots of ways within the MS framework to create GUI's. You can use the Visual C++ .NET way of doing things ("managed" C++ code), you can still do it old-school and #include <windows.h>, you can use MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) which are like an OO wrapper around the Win32 API, and if portability across platforms (to an extent...) is an issue, you can write GUI code in:

Java (recommended, read the Java Swing Tutorial)
Wx Widgets, a cross-platform C++ windowing API
The C++ bindings to GTK (recommended!)

Theres more, GTK (Gnome TookKit) is a popular one, especially for Linux programming and yes, you can make your programs run on Windows nicely as well, QT is fairly popular but with restrictive licensing, Java is nice and fairly portable but dont buy into the hype, it needs some platform modifications (especially on Macs!).

Heres a few resources I compiled for someone to get started in Windows programming in C or C++, using Win32. I suggest you learn Win32 first then move on to MFC to make your life easier. Spend lots of time in Win32 land.

I highly recommend you be confident with some of the trickier parts of C (structures, pointers to structures, user-defined types, pointers and the address operator, maybe more I cant remember). The nice thing about Win32 is you can do it with Dev-C++, your headers are already installed properly so you can just get started coding. Just be careful to setup the right kind of project (Win32 Application, C++) and you're ready to go. You can also use Visual Studio .NET like I usually do. I looked into the new "managed C++" way of .NET programming and I'm not a fan.

Heres the small list, Windows programming can get ugly, but you need to do at least 3-5 tutorials to start getting it. Once you see the same stuff over, and over it gets easier, the first look might scare the heck out of you, just stick with it, most of the junk is required by Windows.

Win32 - The classic way that still holds true
http://www.winprog.org/ <- My Favorite
http://www.relisoft.com/Win32/
http://www.functionx.com/win32/
The Bible <- after reading tutorials, if you decide to get serious this book is one of the best