Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework [Paperback]

Tom Archer (Author), Nishant Sivakumar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2003

The Microsoft Found Classes (MFC) compose the class library for Microsoft's Visual C++. First introduced over 10 years ago, this class library is now in use by approximately 1.5 million programmers, and is the subject of many books, articles, and Web sites. MFC developers, along with their hundreds of thousands of existing applications, are not going to migrate to .NET overnight. On the other hand, there is no doubt that .NET is the future of Microsoft development. Therefore, instead of writing yet another .NET book trying to move MFC developers to .NET entirely, this book attempts to get these MFC developers on board today by showing them how to continue using MFC and combine it with .NET to become more productive. Then over time, MFC developers will move to .NET. For now, this book focuses on this untapped group of MFC developers who fall into the category of "late adopters". While there are several books on COM and .NET interoperability, they really focus more on making your new .NET apps interact with your legacy apps. We don't know of another book quite like this one.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“To anyone looking to augment their existing MFC code base and knowledge with the powerful .NET classes—which provide such capabilities as disconnected data, in-memory database (IMDB), regular expressions, and data encryption—Tom Archer’s book has it all.”

—Erik Westermann, Lead Architect, Eidenai Innovations

Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework is the first book to show MFC developers how to boost productivity by incorporating .NET functionality into existing MFC applications. Tom Archer clearly illustrates how using the .NET Base Class Library (BCL)—to complement or replace MFC classes when there is a clear advantage—enables MFC developers to create elegant and robust Windows applications in the most efficient way possible.

Each chapter begins with an introduction that explains the technology, outlines its benefits, lists its pragmatic business uses, and summarizes the required syntax. As is an Archer trademark, this information is solidified with hands-on, practical demo applications.

This book answers the questions MFC developers have about .NET, including:

• What are the key issues when combining MFC and Managed Extensions? Page 15
• How can Regular Expressions be used to parse a document for multiple complex pattern types, such as email addresses? Page 84
• How can hash codes be used to validate users without storing passwords? Page 161
• How can MFC applications maintain data stored in XML format? Page 274
• Once an ADO.NET DataSet is filled, how can the data be searched, sorted, and filtered? Page 336
• What technique is used for reading image data from a database using ADO.NET classes? Page 363
• What are the options for handling disconnected data concurrency issues? Page 396
• How can Remoting be used to pass MFC objects between applications? Page 460

The CD-ROM supplies the complete downloadable source code, working samples, and test code from the book, as well as several productivity-enhancing utilities such as a Visual Studio .NET Custom AppWizard.

032117352XB11142003

About the Author

Tom Archer is an award-winning programmer and principal of the Archer Consulting Group, which provides training, management and project consulting, and contract programming worldwide. He is a cofounder of CodeGuru, a frequent contributor to CodeProject, and the author of ten books, including the best-selling Inside C#, now in its second edition (Microsoft Press, 2002).

Nishant Sivakumar is a Microsoft Visual C++ MVP and a member of the CodeProject team. He has written more than a hundred online articles on Visual C++ and .NET programming.

032117352XAB11142003

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (December 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 032117352X
• ISBN-13: 978-0321173522
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,309,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best source for working VC++ programmers, September 25, 2004

By 

T. Marshall (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework (Paperback)

I make a living writing C++ code. Like many other MFC developers, I have been reluctant to move into the .NET world. This book is the bridge I needed to make the change.

Most programming books are written by writers who live in some strange world where applications only contain code already well documented on MSDN. Tom Archer is one of those rare writers who actually knows what he is talking about and covers the code we need in the real world.

Aside from the obvious examples and topics in this book, I also got a lot from the little extras included by the author. This book is full of little time saving things I did not expect to find. One example is the Visual Studio App Wizard on the CD. This tool makes it very simple to start an MFC application with all the support you need for .NET already built in. That's a real-world savings for any professional programmer working in MFC & .NET.

Best Features
Step-by-step instructions for creating the example programs. These make great references when you have to write something similar.

Well thought-out examples. Close enough to real-world work to be helpful but small enough to be understandable.

Extras! The CD contains several tools including a cool custom App Wizard to create a .NET friendly MFC application.

Excellent coverage on XML and database operations. These are two important topics for a professional developer. This book doesn't include the typical (useless) school samples.

The chapter on regular expressions is great!


Could be Better
The index could be twice as large and still be too small.

Chapter 11 - Managing Your Managed Objects is not written in the same clear style as the rest of the book. Despite its name, this chapter is mostly about .NET collections. It reads more like MSDN documentation than Archer's usual writing.

Overall, this book is a clear winner for anyone who works in MFC and wants to use the .NET classes. It's a little pricey, but it will easily save you more than the cost in research time.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant stuff!!, March 16, 2004

By 

Michelle Long (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework (Paperback)

When I read the various quotes from this book I was a bit skeptical - especially the quotes from the program manager of Visual C++. I'm not saying I didn't believe the quotes, but I figured that lots of these guys know each other and help each other out with quotes. However, I did buy the book and am definitely happy with it! Here are my specific Pros and Cons:

PROS
* Incredible coverage of XML, RegEx and Cryptography
* I almost didn't read the File I/O chapter thinking it couldn't be of any more help than CStdioFile and CFile. Boy was I wrong!? Great chapter
* The *best* ADO.NET chapters currently in print. Archer is the only author to show why and how to incorporate disconnected data using ADO.NET into an MFC application. Actually, these chapters alone are worth the price of the book.
* Great Visual Studio AppWizard to automate creating MFC/.NET apps!

CONS
* Remoting and Performance - These chapters (at the end of the book) seem a bit rushed and could have used more detail.

SUMMARY
I'm using this book quite frequently to write MFC/.NET appliations where I create the UI using MFC and then the lower level classes from the .NET BCL. Great combination to produce quality results quickly!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Use XML and cryptography under .NET, February 8, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework (Paperback)

There is a vast group of Visual C++ coders out there, you perhaps amongst them. Successfully writing and maintaining what is perhaps now large source code bodies. In doing so, you've become quite experienced and you know the ins and outs of Visual C++. But about 2 years ago, Microsoft starting pushing a wonderful new .NET platform. Impressive claims about how one could develop code in several languages sitting atop this. Technically nice. But for you, much of this was moot. You and others in your group have no inclination to start coding in Pascal, anyway. You cannot abandon Visual C++.

So the authors wrote this book, targeted towards you. It is not a comprehensive introduction to .NET. But they chose to focus on a few topics that you might value. XML for example. This is now a widely adopted standard for data interchange, and if your code isn't already familiar with it, then it might be a good thing to add. It motivates you to start dipping into .NET. Plus, in order to parse XML, they show how to use the standard Document Object Model (DOM) parser that is available under .NET. All useful stuff.

They also use cryptography as another hook into .NET. It is just a guess, but some of your applications might need this. So here is how to use some of the latest advanced implementations of hashing and public key infrastructure. And if these are done in .NET, well, gosh, what a coincidence. :)