Customer Reviews

Visual C++ 6: The Complete Reference

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

The title is misleading. I had little C/C++ background and no Visual C++ at all. I was looking for a book that would teach me the Visual C++ (as the title implies) environment so I could use it to further my understanding of C/C++. I glanced through the book and couldn't even figure out how to get a button to cause a pop-up message. So I READ the first 570 pages of the book. At this point, I couldn't get the example program to run without a GPF error and I still didn't know how to get a button to cause a pop-up message. I gave up and went to another book. I did the pop-up message after the first chapter of the new book... My conclusion: this book is EXCELLENT if you want to learn C/C++ (I did learn a lot!) However, it's not very good for Windows programming or for Visual C++.

Despite the cover of the book says Visual C++ with coverage on MFC, COM and so forth, more than half of the book (600 page+) is focused on C/C++. As for the rest of the 300 remaining pages, they only serve as an introduction to MFC, and very little in (X)Controls and COM.

Regardless of some negative reviews on this book, I still find the book quite good, from a C/C++ reference that is. As the matter of fact, this book does a very good job on C/C++ reference. For example, the explanations are clear and easy to read, reference library tables are included, and code examples are short and clean. As for the other topics, this book is just scratching on the surface of MFC, ActiveX and COM.

I think the negative reviews came from those who expect a COMPLETE reference on Visual C++ and others advanced topics which the cover had advertised. Let me tell you this, it is COMPLETELY false to assume that a single book can deliver such a promise. Why? MFC and ActiveX control by itself can easily accommodate an entire 1500 pages book. And as for COM, this topic alone requires at least 2 to 3 solid books, and of course, you will also need to know C++ cold!!

Why I give this book 4 stars? Because I was looking for a C/C++ reference book, and this book it does a better job than most of the other books out there on C/C++. Also because I didn't expect much from it regarding the advance topics other than an introduction. To do so would be like expecting it to deliver a Microsoft miracle book - a COMPLETE all-in-one Visual programmer reference. There is no such thing, and even if one does exist, you'll probably need a dolly to carry it around.

The title of this book is very misleading. I was looking for a book concentrating on using Visual C++. However, two thirds of the book is dedicated to C++ programming. Leaving 300+ pages to discuss Windows Apps, MFC, Class Wizards, OLE, Active X and COM. There are entire books dedicated to these subjects. How can the authors cover these subjects in a few pages and consider it "Complete"?

I've found this book generally poor as a reference. I've owned it for over one year, and do not recall ever finding an answer that I needed. My answers always came from other books. It may be better as a tutorial, but I have not used it as such.

This book is very complete - more than I need. I bought the book because I needed to know the basics of the C++ language. In this respect I would give the book a top rating.

I also bought the book because I needed to get started with Windows programming. This is something I have put off for a number of years. Fear I guess. I would also give this book a top rating in this area. I used the material in the MFC section of the book. The authors did NOT assume you were a Windows expert. Instead, they took the time to teach the fundamentals and definitions needed to write Windows code.

I have written 2 programs using the MFC. One was a knock off of their Fourier program (but mine does other Fourier series not just square waves) and the second was a line chart program. I learned to do the line chart example after studing their bar chard program.

All and all - the book helped me a lot.

If you buy this book hoping to learn VC++; you are heading for disappointment! This book deals more with C/C++ then VC++. The title is totally misleading.

I didn't read C/C++ stuff, but a coverage of Visual C++ is not enough even for a beginner's reference. The word 'Complete' I can't even discuss. Even books like 'VC in 24 hours' may give you more ideas and examples than this one.

Well, this is the wrong book if you are an expert C++ programmer. However, as a beginner looking for a complete reference and a good treatment of C++ I found this book to be excellant.

Very well styled, easy to read, lots of examples, lots of topics!!!!!, and a great index.

This is a 27 chapter book. For the first 20 chapters the authors cover C and C++, with no coverage of MS VC++. For the last 7 chapters, they try to touch on every concept in VC++ without actually explaining anything. Numerous times the authors will give an example and then tell the student to use that program as a template, instead of bothering to explain the calls that the program makes. The coverage of VC++ material does not give enough information to assist anyone in creating a useful program. As for coverage of complex topics, DLLs and threads each get their own sentence.

I am a professional C developer who has been programming for a long time. Hands down, this is the worst programming book that I have ever read.

Amazing that the writers could not break lose from C programming. Unfortunately they did present most of their examples in the C-language. I counted all C and C++ programs. Easy to see what is C, having C filename extension and stdio header files while C++ programs having CPP filename extension and mostly iostream, or other stream related header files.