Customer Reviews

MFC Programming from the Ground Up

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have had the chance to read any of the programming books that are out there you will know this one stands out on a MAJOR point:

This is the only Windows programming book that I know of that shows you how to build Windows or MFC programs without using Wizards! All the other books build from the AppWizards - why buy a book for that when those examples come with Microsoft Visual Studio anyway?!

This book shows you how to write a straight Win32 application without MFC. Then it shows you how and why to write a Win32 application using MFC. After you read this book you have a chance of understanding the underlying code generated by an AppWizard - otherwise there IS ABSOLUTELY no way to comprehend what's going on.

No other book does that for some surprising reason. From the Ground Up is intelligently written with the goal of really making you a competent programmer. I read C++ from the Ground Up and then followed it with this book - the examples are deceptively simple and on the mark so you can get started on your own ideas. Once you finish this book you can really understand any Windows code you might find and be able to build expert skills very quickly.

Does this book have some elaborate example with database integration, MP3 player and a skinnable interface? No. None of the books give you that. But with this book I actually had the basis for figuring out how to make one after finding code here and there on the Internet! I've checked every major book and they seem to focus on making Windows programming seem like Visual Basic! You will never know how to really program that way.

The reason I am emphatic is because Schildt gives you the fastest way to go from zero to hero. Get the book and really follow it and you WILL NOT be disappointed!

I think the "from the ground up" books are excellent". I have about 20+ years experience in various languages (fortran, C, C++, Pascal etc). Most of my experience is in straight line programming and was having trouble getting my brain around the MFC concepts. I spent a couple of days with the Windows 98 from the ground up to get the nuts and bolts view of windows programming and another couple of days with MFC Programming from the ground up. The nice thing is that the author follows the same subject matter in the same order with the same examples in all of the books. This was very helpful to me. It allowed me compare both styles and by starting with the API versions was able to see what is happening under the hood, which you won't find out if you start with MFC ( but it's close with this book).

Other reviews have complained about it being tedious as it kept using the same code with only small changes. This is the only way to teach. Any teacher worth his salt will tell you this. You don't need to type in the code as it is provided and you can cut and paste the major code and make your own changes to see various options work. Each piece of code builds on the previous which allows you to see exactly what is happening (you wouldn't see this if each example was completely different from the others). As I said I was able to do a couple of hundred pages in a few hours (it will obviously take longer if you have little experience) and it was definitely worth my while.

The complaint that this book didn't have "difficult to find stuff", is a bogus complaint. Of course it doesn't ( and I guarantee there is NO book that will give you the answer to every possible question), this is not an MFC Bible - it is a learn how to program MFC from the very beginning. It does this very well and covers all the pertinent material necessary to write a very complete program. Any programmer who has any experience at all will tell you will need many books on the same subject as REFERENCES. But without this type of book as a starting point - reference books would be of little value as you won't easily know where to find the information you need or how to use it, if you do find it.

One last observation on these reviews. When one reviewer says "Schildt's code does things in less-than-the-best way", he is obviously not a very knowledgable programmer or only know one way to do things. There is no such thing as a "best way". Sometimes a persons best way, is not a very instructive way. He claims it is too simplistic. That is the whole point of the book. If not "too" simplistic, many people will have a harder time.

I guarantee you no book will make you an expert, only experience does this. It never says it will make you an expert - but that you will learn to program windows using the MFC. This it does very well.

I'm sure some will disagree with me, but obviously Schildt did it right. Just look at all the people that this book helped. There is no way to please everyone, but I think this book comes as close as any is going to.

I bought both of the MFC and Windows 98 Programming from the Ground Up books at the same. They are nearly indentical in content. This fact is great for a begginning Window's programmer (like me), but not so great for those on a budget. The Windows 98 book has more subjects, but is written using the 'traditional' Windows programming methods. The MFC book (of course) uses MFC and therefore is the much easier way to program for Windows. I never use the examples in the book 'as is'. The author writes his code examples and descriptions of the code well enough, that I can use the examples as guides to use in my projects. While neither book should be considered a complete reference, both provide enough information that I am constantly flipping through them to look for examples (which the MS Visual Studio does not show very well.) I bought SAMS' Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 in 24 Hours before these two books, which mainly teaches how to use the compiler. I previously had over five years experience in DOS programming with the Borland C++ compilers. In a about four months and these three books I feel that I know everything that I need to know to write any 'common' Windows 9x application using MS Visual C++ 6.

I have a number of Schildt's books, and like his very clear style. But Prosise's book on MFC is probably a better choice for most people.

My major complaint is that Schildt's code does things in less-than-the-best way. He has a skill in presenting examples focused on a point, but sometimes simplifies too much.

Example: Most MFC programmers create a modeless dialog box "on the heap" (using "new"). Schildt's example makes it a global variable, thereby avoiding some important issues. It would have been better either to address these issues, or omit the topic and refer people to the documentation.

There are many instances of this sort of thing.

I think the book could be excellent if you just want to get your bearings in MFC, enough so you could do your *real* learning from the MSDN documentation. In principle, I like learning from source documentation, but Visual C++ is so rich that the extra guidance offered by Prosise got me up to speed much faster.

After reading Schildt, you will have to plan on spending quite a lot of time with the MSDN documentation.

It's pretty hard to learn MFC, especially people that know only C/C++. I had some experience with Windows Programming, such as console application, Borland Delphi, but still I had a difficulty understanding the MFC. I tried to read some MFC books such as Visual C++ unleashed, and MCSE, but they don't help me much.
This book will not tell HOW TO USE THE WIZARD. But instead, it tells you what all those "hidden" stuffs actually do without using wizard. Now I understand how the MFC works, thanks for Schildt.

As many of the other reviews point out, this book teaches you how to write MFC applications without the damn wizard. Most books, actually all of the books on MFC, besides Jeff Prosie's, I've seen use the wizard approach Microsoft pushes. If you want to learn MFC programming you NEED to get this book or Prosie's. I have not met a professional MFC programmer that uses the wizards. As Schildt points out in his book, you end up fighting the code generated by the wizard, not benefitting from it.

I recommend this book if you know nothing about windows programming and are just looking for an introduction. One of the problems with most MFC books is that they seem to be too quick on the basic concepts and just focus on details. This one is entirely dedicated to basic concepts and leaves details for others. This book won't make you an MFC programmer by any means but it will get you started. One complaint...was it really necessary to repeat the same code over and over again and only make minor changes to it. It seems it would be about 150 pages shorter if they hadn't done that. Also considering how basic most of the book is, I found the chapter on ActiveX Controls to be incomprehensible for a beginner, this chapter is very badly written.

This is a book among the others that *does not only* show you how the use the wizards. It tells you step by step, in a very clear manner the underlying structure of MFC. The author starts with a very simple program, using the most simple MFC component. It then add more and more controls to that simple program, and give you very clear concept of what is going on behind the scene. This book is an excellent one for those who want to learn MFC without any previous knowledge.

I bought this book to learn MFC version 6 which the book claims to cover. The examples do not use any of Visual c++ wizards and I was constantly battling to try to get Visual c++ to accept the example code. Additionally it is only when you get to chapter 17 that the author reveals that all the examples in the book have been written for MFC version 2 and chapter 17 gives a brief overview of version 6 and the class wizards. I gave up on the book at chapter 5 and have made good progress using only the help and examples found on the Internet. I think your money would be better spent on a more current book.

This is the book you should start with in understanding MFC. It goes over in some detail the basics. The book doen't use the AppWizard and even the doc/view architecture but it's O.K. if your just learning. This book is really a transition from C++ programing using the main function and a move into the understanding of why MFC works the way it does. I have to admit that the lack of use of AppWizard (which is really quite helpful) hinders you to some extent later on because, here ,you have to manually enter DDX and message handlers which you don't really have to do but it is a good learning experience (if you try adding DDX code the same way with appWizard you may find it difficult). However, that isn't a concern here. A good book to learn the basics.