Customer Reviews

Essential Visual C++ 6.0 fast: An Introduction to Windows Programming using the Microsoft Foundation Class Library (Essential Series)

5 star:		(0)
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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a reasonable choice for someone who has learned true object oriented programming in C++ but has not been exposed to Windows programming with MFC. The reader must understand function overloading and the operation of constructors for derived classes in depth or the book will be very difficult to follow. There are some minor typos, and the author does not explain everthing that goes on, but it is FAST. A scientist or engineer can get to a nice GUI for his application in a hurry without having to depend on the Wizards. For this narrow audience, the book is a good choice.

Microsoft Foundations Class (MFC) library in 200 page ? sorry I don't think so.

Sure many of us (programers) need sometimes to learn a special subject fast but this book is not for exprianced programmers - it's too shalow.

Ok so it's not for exprianced programmers , how about people how just entered the world of windows programing , well here the book is too fast. MFC is NOT easy ! even if you are good in C++ the book's 200 pages on MFC is just confusing and not enough.

I really don't recommend it for any of the above so I really don't know for who this book suits. (this is why I was cheap in stars).

I will conclud my review with a suggestions -

1. don't learn C in 21 days

2. don't learn C++ in 21 days

3. don't learn MFC fast

or to sumerize it don't learn anything in 21 days. it simply don't do you any good , it just hurts !

sorry , but it isn't my kind of a book -

Enjoy

The previous reviewers are correct in saying this book is too fast for beginners; it has very little by way of explanation as to what's going on in the example programs given. But it shows working, minimal MFC programs that the programmer can enter in directly without using the Visual Studio graphical tools and wizards. I found this illuminating since most Visual C++ tutorials use the wizards, which generate example projects with numerous source files, which obscures what's going on. I think the target audience for the book might be someone like a physicist who wants to write a simple Windows program, but who doesn't want to spend time learning MFC -- all he or she would need to do is copy the relevant example (e.g., the example in chapter 15 which plots a graph) and modify the code as needed. If the goal is to learn MFC with understanding, Prosise or Kruglinski et al would be much better, and certainly much more comprehensive. (But the learning curve is steep whichever route is taken.)

This book was definately not worth it. 200 pages of code with not a very good expaination behind it. The author tells you the "how" and not the "why". If you want to learn to program with MFC and know how and why your program works, then stay away from this book. If you want the code without needing the how or why, then this book is for you. This book is more of a reference than a learning tool.

If typos and misspelling bother you too, then stay away from essential visual C++.