Customer Reviews

VC++ MFC Extensions by Example

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The great thing about this book is it addresses so many situations that MFC programmers find themselves in, and it seems like you're always trying to reinvent the wheel to deal with them.

We're currently wrapping up a 1 year project, and we had a lot of user interface issues that seemed minor, but required some investigation in how to deal with them. Just scanning through the table of contents, we found the solution to at least 4 of those issues, and we implemented them in a matter of minutes.

After greater examination of the book, we've discovered many ideas to incorporate in future releases of our software. Things we had considered, but seemed more difficult than they're going to be.

Swanke is a solid MFC coder who really understands the ins and outs of MFC. His examples don't take the bizarre hack routes that many programmers tend to use to implement things that are out of the ordinary. Instead, he uses MFC in very elegant ways that don't always seem obvious to the rest of us.

I applaud him on a very fine book. I also purchased his book, "Visual C++ MFC Programming by Example" and was equally impressed, and my review of it is available as well.

This book was definitely worth it. It's a fat collection of semi-advanced MFC 'tricks', fully spelled out with working code. Some of the items are simple (creating a resizable dialog) and some are slick (putting an animation on a toolbar,) but they're all clearly spelled out. It's not a beginners' book.

You could call this book a collection of 'answers' - and if you have even one of these problems, it will pay for itself. But I found some of the techniques so useful I read it cover to cover, and then invented places to use them. It also includes a handy MFC reference card that's helped a half dozen times already.

The only downside is while the author has definately earned his pay, the publishing house hasn't. There are a number of glaring typographical errors, even wholly repeated sidebars. The cover stock is pretty cheap too. This book deserves to be re-issued from a respectable publisher.

This book is an absolute MUST for any serious MFC/Visual C++ developer. It deals with complex and very practical subjects in a simple and straightforward manner! Before you waste hours and hours trying to develop one code snippet, simply consult the book and get it RIGHT the first time!

It does not matter if you are new to Visual C++ or a hardcore veteran - this book is full of very valuable information and shortcuts. Before I attempt something I have not done before, I consult the book first. Most of the examples are great for putting you on the right track and the code snippets can usually be inserted directly into your projects!

There are two MFC books real-world MFC programmers should keep as future references. VC++ MFC Extensions by Example by John Swanke is one of them. This is an essential MFC extension. Swanke presents powerful, yet surprisingly really simple fully implemented solutions to questions MFC programmers most often ask. For example, the author provides a solution to a folder selection dialog box. Swanke presents elegant solutions that are so simple, yet effective, they make Visual C++ Wizard seem overly complicated!

Swanke includes another element that definitely distinguishes this book from other MFC books: MFC virtual function execution sequences. Swanke does an exceptional job mapping the order of which Windows calls different virtual functions and presents fundamental pointers to important MFC messages. I believe the execution sequences Swanke presents help in design process, during implementation process, and ultimately during maintenance of MFC based applications. Lastly, his solutions are mixtures of MFC and Win32 API. Programmers learn to directly use Win32 API in an MFC architecture and get the best of both worlds.

I highly recommend VC++ MFC Extensions by Example.

Kuphryn

The ftp address for the source codes do not work, and the author and the publishing company do not help the people who have bought his book.

Unfortunately there is a serious lack of books written on MFC. One would think that there would be a number of excellent books by this time. Nope. MFC looks like it was abandoned. WTL, a low-overhead replacement for MFC, has less documentation yet.

I bought this book hoping that it would help me learn MFC. It covers some of the concepts, but it just doesn't go far enough. The example program are no longer available online, so you'll have to type them in yourself. Some of what is covered in the book has been changed, so you'll have to try to make sense of the online reference.

The book seems to be OK and useful, however there is no CD with the book and I bought a new one. The publisher's address [...] is broken and returns a German garage doors website.
The address in the book where one can supposedly download the source code doesn't work neither "Access denied". The book contains tons of references to these examples and since the CD was missing and the download site down it means this book is useless. Do not buy this book unless you have already found the source code somehow.

I received the book the condition as it is advertized. Satisfied with the shipment.

I like it very much for it provide lots of examples and explain many questions about programming. So after I finished this book, I bought the other two books written by swanke.