Customer Reviews

Beginning Visual C++ 6

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

If you read the remaining reviews of this book, you will probably be surprised and confused by the extreme opinions expressed. To help you decide whether this book is worth your time and money, I offer these observations:

C++ is a very complex programming language written BY advanced programmers FOR advanced programmers. NO AUTHOR CAN MAKE C++ PROGRAMMING EASY. However, it is my opinion that Mr. Horton does an excellent job presenting a well-rounded overview of Visual C++ programming in this book.

Be warned. This book is NOT for you if:

-You have never programmed before

-You have written a few Visual Basic programs that have a couple dozen lines of code in them

-You expect this book to tell you everything that there is to know about Visual C++, MFC, ATL, Windows, COM, DLLs, memory management, enterprise development, etc., etc. (No single book can do all these things.)

However, this book may be a good choice for you if:

-You have written some fairly advanced programs in languages like Visual Basic, and love the challenge of programming

-You have the patience to read a 1200 page book slowly and carefully, and are willing to write sample programs to reinforce your learning

-You need a systematic, thoughtful overview of Visual C++ so you can start down the very long path to proficiency

I use this book when teaching my college-level C++ programming classes, and my students do struggle. But they struggle with the complexities of C++ and MFC, not with the book. I find no fault in the book itself. Please try to distinguish those reviewers who criticize the language from those who criticize the book.

I hope you find my comments useful.

As a Windows Programming MCT, I constantly read "Beginner" books to recommend to my students to supplement or provide backgrounders to the Microsoft Official Curriculum.

The book does a pretty good job until you get to Windows programming. Actually I think it's one of the better books to learn the fundamentals of C++ programming.

However, the treatment of structures leaves a little to be desired, with common structures that appear throughout the entire Windows API being glossed over in Chapter 7.

Contrary to several other reviews, the intro to MFC is not that bad, and provides a good background to move on to other texts more devoted to the subject.

ATL should be removed from the text completely. This subject requires a more detailed explanation of COM which is simply not appropriate for a beginers text. My recomendation would be to expand the section on structures in a Windows context.

Also, version 6 of Visual Studio introduced OLE-DB as a solution for Universal Data Access, yet there is no mention of it here. Instead the author has applied a cut and paste from the version 5 of the book to give us ODBC. It would've been more appropriate to mention something about OLE-DB templates, and focus on ADO.

Overall however, this is a book I would recommend for beginners, to continue with Programming Windows with MFC, 2nd Ed by Jeff Proise.

This text of nearly 1,200 pages attempts to do it all: take a neophyte with little or no knowledge of programming and 1) teach C++ programming - not just a quick once over, but the whole darned language, right from soup to nuts; and 2)teach Microsoft Windows programming in C++, including full coverage of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and ActiveX controls; and 3)oh yeah, just as a side note, also teach the use of the Visual C++ integrated development environment!

This is just not possible to do in 'merely' 1200 pages; 3,000 might be more appropriate, and 4,000 would certainly not be wasted. So it's not surprising that there's a slight sense of brevity in some of the topics covered.

What is truly amazing is just how well Horton manages to pull this off. A combination of skilled writing, careful editing and towering educational skill has resulted in what must truly rate as THE single best text out there on Visual C++ programming. No other book even comes close; no other book is even in the same ball park. This book sets a new standard of excellence that, sadly, most authors will never achieve.

The book starts with a quick 1 chapter 'once over' of the Microsoft Visual C++ Integrated Development Environment (IDE), explaining how to start a simple DOS window application and pointing out various useful features of the editor. At the end of this chapter you won't be an expert in the IDE, but you will be able to get a project created, a file started and start entering code.

From here to about the half way point Horton does a masterful job of teaching the practical basics of programming in C++. He not only teaches the language, syntax, and idiosyncrasies; he also teaches basic programming concepts, covering such topics as decision structures, loops, strings, sorting... basically everything you'd expect to learn in a full college 'programming fundamentals' course.

From the mid way point on through to the end of the book, Horton concentrates on teaching the practical aspects of programming in the Windows environment using Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC). He pulls this off just as well as the first half of the text; although occasionally theory is a little bit terse or 'skimpy', the practical usage of MFC is well presented and thoroughly discussed.

Really, the only way to improve this text would be to double or triple it in size, and really let Mr. Horton take off. I considered - briefly - reducing my ranking of this book to 4 stars, simply because it attempts to do so much. But I just couldn't do it; this book is just too good, it achieves so much, it is so clearly written. It's an absolute masterpiece! To give this book less than 5 stars would be somewhat analogous to dismissing the Mona Lisa, simply because it was mounted in a rather indifferent frame.

For readers with absolutely no knowledge of computers at all, who don't know the difference between a bit and a byte and couldn't define either one, I might recommend Mr. Horton's "Beginning C++: The Complete Language". This text is approximately 950 pages of what amounts to DOS - style programming in C++. Because of the concentration on just C++ programming - there's no mention of windows in this text - there's much more room to delve into theory as well as practise. Mr. Horton puts the space to good use, with the result that every concept is extremely clear, and nothing is left unsaid.

I own both texts, and have found it very helpful to be able to cross reference between the two. While the C++ DOS programming covers much the same ground in both texts, it is covered somewhat differently; and this can help to clarify concepts that might have remained muddled otherwise.

If you have even the most basic grounding in programming, the Visual C++ text is probably all you need. With a concentration on practicality, this text starts with first concepts and gives you everything you need to start writing complex, windows based programs in C++ using Visual C++ from Microsoft.

If you're only planning on buying one text... this is it. If you want the BEST text... this is it. And if you don't RUN to the nearest bookstore and see what I (and others) are talking about, you're short changing yourself severely. Because this book can do a lot more then take up space on your bookshelf. This book can actually teach you C++. You can actually learn to write complex Windows based programs - even obtain employment as a competent C++ programmer - with nothing more then Visual C++, and this book.

Hear that soft tapping sound? That's opportunity, knocking. And if you give it a chance, this book can change your life.

Charles Worton, MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, A+

I work as a C++ developer but was new to MFC before reading this book. It's important to note that the first half is about C++, the second half is about MFC and is equivalent to the other Wrox book: Beginning MFC Programming. I only read (and did most of the extra exercises too!) the second half of the book since I already knew C++ quite well.

The author's approach is to have you build up a fairly substantial and functional MFC app by adding more and more advanced features to it as you go along. It's a sketching/drawing application and will interest you if you like graphics apps. Other books tend to take a different approach - they tend to show very simple applications or code snipets to demonstrate each new MFC feature/topic. Horton's approach is different - you will be mostly working with the same app for several chapters. This has the benefit of showing you how to structure a non-trivial Visual C++/MFC application. Advanced C++ programmers typically already

know how to structure large programs and probably don't need this - they usually prefer to see simple code examples that illustrate how the class is used. Maybe that's why you see a lot of negative reviews here from people looking for the ultimate MFC book which is not the intent of this book.

Horton shows you a design philosophy that you will see over and over again - the concept of creating document objects/classes that can "draw" themselves given a device context. e.g. pShape->Draw(pDC, ...);

Beginners will probably have a lot of difficulty understanding the mapping mode (MM_ANISOTROPIC, etc) topics. Horton includes it because it's important for graphics apps like Sketcher. He actually explains things better and more completely than advanced MFC books. For example, he actually gives you the equations for transforming between document/model coordinates and device coordinates. While I (as a person who is interested in computer graphics and all the math that entails) appreciates this, I'm sure that for some beginners, this will be over their heads.

The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that the Author takes the sketcher app one or two chapters too far. At one point, I thought the app was complete and deleted it from my workspace before going onto the next chapter. Then a couple of chapters later, he uses it again and I had to drag it off my floppy.

My suggestions:

1. Make sure you know your C++ before looking at MFC in this book or another other book for that matter. I recommend learning C++ from some of the classic (not-compiler specific) texts by authors such as Pohl, Lippman, etc.

2. The book leads you through the wizards and where to add custom code in a step-by-step manner. It is very complete in this sense and there are plenty of snapshots. If you follow his directions, you shouldn't get lost anywhere.

3. Don't just read the book. Do the exercises. If you get stuck, look up the answers at the back of the book. Download source code from Wrox if necessary.

4. After reading this book, you will need a more advanced book on MFC that explains it from first principles and that talks about Win32 API and MFC internals. I suggest Prosise, Feuer, or the new Professional MFC 6

As an engineer, I have had experience with the programming languages FORTRAN and Pascal, but never C++. I decided that I wanted to learn Windows programming and had access to Visual C++ at work, so browsing the shelves I choose Beginning Visual C++ 6
by Ivor Horton. It had the look I like (lots of example code snippets, clearly printed, well formatted text) and the depth of coverage to get me programming in Windows fairly quickly, starting from ground zero. I also like the coverage the book gives on Visual C++, the tool to write, develop, and debug your code. Overall, Ivor has a solid presentation, good flow of topics and an interesting style to spruce up a dry topic. Be hearty though, this book is THICK and will require some time with to read and practice the drills.

Beginning C++ is not really an excellent primer on C++ language itself, GOOD but not EXCELLENT. If you have no knowledge of C++ I would recommend a good textbook on pure C++ programming that has lots of problems to work through and examples on HOW to program as the chapters Ivor devotes to this are thin on the opportunities to "dig in" with the code. Perhaps Deitel, "C++, How to Program" might complement this purchase nicely for those with limited C++ knowledge, it did for me.

Overall this is a good book. I think it is well written, I didn't find any huge errors, thus, this one is good. BUT, I would NOT recommend this book. First of all, it does NOT cover all of C++ as some of the reviewers below have stated. It doesn't even come close. Nowhere in this book will you find anything about C++ Stream Input/Output, C++ File handling, and there is very little of the Standard Template Library. Second of all, this is FAR FROM being a complete overview of the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes). Collectively, MFC is about 100 classes and with a rough guestimate on my part this book covers about 30-40 of the classes and does so in very little detail. Nowhere in this book will you find anything about the MFC's support of Threads (CWinThread) or Sockets (CSocket) or File handling (CFile), just to name a few. Moreover, don't be fooled by the book's claim that you get into database programming because what you build is for the lack of a better word, pathetic. It doesn't even remotely mirror what you will develop at work; it's way too simplistic. In addition, it doesn't cover ADO, which is the database class Microsoft is really pushing right now, so it isn't up to date. Now to get to my point, don't buy this book, save your money! You see, this book doesn't spend enough time covering C++ and so you are going to have to purchase a more thorough C++ book. Second of all, you are going to have to purchase a new book to learn the MFC because this one doesn't even break the surface. In other words, by the time you get through with this book you'll know enough to be able to say 'yea I have an understanding of C++ and MFC, but not enough to create any applications that would even remotely mirror development at the office'. Instead, just a few months down the road, you will find yourself consulting regularly with the other C++ and MFC books you had to buy to cover C++ and MFC in greater depth. All the while, 'Beginning C++ 6' will be sitting on your shelf gathering dust. So in other words, why buy this book to learn C++ and MFC when you are going to have to buy two other books that are also capable of teaching you C++ and MFC, and doing so in much greater detail. Just go ahead and get the other two books upfront and save yourself the cost of this one. I recommend 'Core C++' and 'Mfc Programming from the Ground Up'. With these two books you'll learn both C++ and MFC in the depth necessary to boast that you are capable of programming in Visual C++. Good Luck on your endeavors!

Many high-level language programmers (Visual Basic, Delphi) are hesitant to approach Windows programming with C++. The topic seems unapproachable because of the learning curve involved.

The reality is, this stuff is very complex; however, in the hands of a good author or teacher the subject can be broken down into consumable portions and taught to even the most novice developer. I've tried three other books on this subject...none of them come close to this text! In fact, this book not only flows well, it almost acts as three books in one, first coving C++ (in depth, all though Win32 console based applications), then it approaches user interface using the MFC, next database development using ODBC, and lastly it devotes a chapter to ATL/COM development (which is far better written than the entire Beginning ATL COM 3.0 book by Wrox).

If you want to learn Visual C++, youc can do it! Start with this book.

I also purchased Ivor's book on Java programming and I was up and running with in no time. The same goes for this book, this is, although, a rathar large one (1000+ pages) but it's no professionaly written, so understanble. Makes learning a pleasure, even if it is the pain that C++ is. It starts off with the very basics of C++ and moves up the scale to Pointers, Classes, OO programming and of course, MFC. Beginner? head this way!

If you are a competent C++ programmer, this may not be the best book for. Roughly half of the book is devoted to C++. I would have preferred if the book focused solely on MFC and VC++. That way would have allowed for greater depth and coverage of the very large subject of MFC. Horton did a good job of explaining the example code. The example application which spans multiple chapters is usefull in that it introduces one to handling larger projects in VC++. I cannot comment on the first half of this book as I did not need to read it. This is a good book for someone who needs to learn C++ and intends to go on to the basics of MFC.

I've been programming with VB/ASP for more than a year, now I need to learn Visual C++ to code things can't be done with VB.

I believe this is a very good book for all levels, even if you never programmed before. Each chapter provides code examples, and explain in detail how it works, and/or why it does not work. unlike Microsoft mastering series that I have an online version, which just fly through all the topics, good for code sample or reference, not learning. Before, whenever I saw some window C++ code, I always got overwhelmed, but this book explains code in detail, as well as necessary background information.

After read each chapter, I disipline myself to do all the exercises, then compare with the answers to ensure I understand that chapter. For me, the best way to learn is by coding. The exercises and answers are the best part of the book.

great learning book. Highly recommand it.