Practical Visual C++ 6 [Paperback]

Jonathan Bates (Author), Timothy Tompkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0789721422 | ISBN-13: 978-8120316393 | Edition: 1

Practical Visual C++ takes a straight forward, no-nonsense approach to teaching C++. You start by learning the basics of Developer Studio with the use of the Wizards, editors, and debuggers. Then move on to the core language, including program flow, data types, functions, classes, object-oriented programming, and more. You then progress into the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), the libraries of pre-build classes that Microsoft provides to make Visual C++ programming much easier. By understanding how to use the classes within MFC, you will be able to create nearly any type of program. Specific coverage includes working with dialogs, objects, controls, document-views, file manipulation, and printing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Practical Visual C++ takes a straight forward, no-nonsense approach to teaching C++. You start by learning the basics of Developer Studio with the use of the Wizards, editors, and debuggers. Then move on to the core language, including program flow, data types, functions, classes, object-oriented programming, and more. You then progress into the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), the libraries of pre-build classes that Microsoft provides to make Visual C++ programming much easier. By understanding how to use the classes within MFC, you will be able to create nearly any type of program. Specific coverage includes working with dialogs, objects, controls, document-views, file manipulation, and printing.

About the Author

Jon Bates is a software design consultant and contract software developer specializing in Visual C++. He has been involved in commercial, industrial, and military software development for more than 15 years. Tim Tompkins is a Software Development Manager for a European software company specializing in integrated MIS systems. He has programmed for a wide range of systems and is currently responsible for the design and implementation of commercial applications written in Visual C++.

Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Que; 1 edition (August 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789721422
• ISBN-13: 978-8120316393
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is great for Visual C++ Beginners, October 12, 1999

By 

"kenbham" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Visual C++ 6 (Paperback)

I found this book easy to follow. Not only do you get an understanding of MS VC++ but you also get a great tutorial on the MSVC IDE. I've read a lot of VC++ books that have left me more confused than educated. In most of the books, by the time you get to the discussion of controls you're already bored out of your wits. This book starts out with dialog boxes and controls, including ActiveX (great from a Visual Basic perspective), and then gets into SDI's, MDI's,Device Contexts, et al. Buy this book for a good general discussion and tutorial of VC++ and then buy a more advanced book which discusses your subject of interest in more detail (e.g., Jeff Prosise's Programming Windows with MFC). The exercises are great so do yourself a favor and key them in. Also, you don't have to be a C++ wiz to understand what's going on.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revelation!, July 4, 2000

By 

W. A. Norris (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Visual C++ 6 (Paperback)

If I see one more hack write their version of Microsoft Documentation Regurgitated I think I'm going to lose my lunch. Fortunately, this isn't one of those. This book differentiates itself by what it leaves out--you won't see nook and cranny of Visual C++ covered, and you won't get 800,000 lines of code free on the CD. Instead, it picks out the key features you really need to know to start getting a handle on Visual C++, and covers them clearly and thoroughly.

This book assumes you know how to write C++, and it assumes you understand object oriented programming, so it doesn't waste your time trying to rehash them. If you don't know these things, get a different book. But if you know the language but are new to MFC and the specifics of Visual C++, you'll find yourself able to put together a program in surprisingly short order.

At first, I was surprised and alarmed by the fact that it contained no CD of sample code like I'm used to seeing. But upon reflection, this makes perfect sense. Many of the nuances of working with Visual C++ and MFC are in working with the Visual Studio GUI and various wizards, and the chapters that concentrate on a topic take you through all the steps needed to create sample programs. The code that *is* used in the samples is inline in the chapter, but by creating it all yourself (rather than just opening a file on a CD), you get a feel for really using the tools.

Frankly, I always thought Visual C++ and MFC were really complicated to program in. If you know C++ pretty well, after you've worked through the chapters of this book that are relevant to whatever you're trying to program, it will be as easy as working in Visual Basic, and you'll still get all the power of a real programming language.

Of course, if you're looking to do low-level systems programming in Windows or tackle other advanced areas, this book isn't going to tell you how to do it. But it will make hooking up the front-end GUI, connecting to a standard ODBC database, and other common tasks quick and painless, so you can spend your time concentrating on the hard parts.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, Focuses on how to use the IDE to access MFC, May 14, 2000

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Visual C++ 6 (Paperback)

This is a great book for learning how to use the VC++6 software, and in so doing, gain an understanding of how to use the easy stuff (like controls). It doesn't do a lot to teach the syntax of C++, so if you want to know the key to the language, this isn't the book for you. If you want a genuinely first class tutorial on how to use the VC++6 software, this is it. And surprise surprise, what code there is actually works (anyone who's read a few computer books knows how rare that is!). To say that it will teach you intermediate C++ in a few chapters is however an exageration. I've read some other C++ books (and been programming several years in other languages) and as far as the actual C++ language goes, this book is about as basic as it gets. But even so, it's a great tutorial for the software and intro to basic MFC.