Portable Gui Development With C++ [Hardcover]

Mark Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993 | ISBN-10: 0070684898 | ISBN-13: 978-0070684898 | Edition: 1st

Finally, a book that shows readers how to create portable GUI applications that work across all the major windowing environments: Microsoft Windows, XWindows, and Apple. The author explains how to use C++, an adaptable, object-oriented programming language, to write multi-platform GUI applications for non-specific windowing environments. Machine-specific details, as well, need be written only once; once written, they can be stored and called upon as needed when developing and implementing new systems. Plus, appendixes provide complete source code for the C++ GUI class library and the application class library. The author develops several fascinating real-world applications programs and explains how to simplify programming and eliminate common memory management programming bugs. This practical book will appeal to all C and UNIX programmers, applications developers, and programmers, and software developers who want an effective and resourceful way to develop portable GUI applications for use across multiple platforms.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill (Tx); 1st edition (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070684898
• ISBN-13: 978-0070684898
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,775,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of C++ code but so what?, December 4, 1997

By 

Victor R. Volkman "http://www.LovingHealing.com" (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Portable Gui Development With C++ (Hardcover)

Watson's book which purports to put forth a cross-platform foundation class for MS Windows, Macintosh, and XWindows succeeds only in confounding the reader. First, the book completely skirts all important portability issues. It does not address keyboard input, binary data compatability, character codesets or anything else. The best example is perhaps the chapter on File I/O, which is all of THREE pages long (80% of which is source code).

There is nothing which describes the philosophy and design of his class libraries as a whole. Instead, what you get are a single short chapter on the most rudimentary aspects of each of the three windowing environments supported.

Perhaps the most rude shock of all is that the 100+ pages of source code literally dumped into the book are NOT included on a diskette or CD-ROM. No, instead you are expected to mail order a diskette from the author for the huge markup of $12, presumably to spare you hours of retyping the code. This is 1997 folks, how about an FTP site?

Adding insult to injury is the condition that the code is NOT in fact freeware and you may not redistribute source code to programs written using it or suffer the threat of unspecified implied legal action.

Thank heavens the title of this book doesn't include the catchphrase "Object-Oriented", because its not. There isn't even anything as descriptive as a class hierarchy. That's because the classes have no relationships.

Your time would be better spent downloading any of the wonderful cross-platform GUI frameworks which are FREELY available on the Internet such as YACL or vxWindows.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this book, April 23, 1998

By 

Ryan Davis ([e-mail]) (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portable Gui Development With C++ (McGraw-Hill Unix/C) (Paperback)

Full of errors, buggy code, poor object design, and a real lack of study make this one of the most hated books in my library. Mark Watson and his publisher should be ashamed.