Customer Reviews

Visual C++ 6 Programming Blue Book: The Complete, Fast-Paced Way to Master Visual C++ 98

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recently bought MSVC++ 6 so I could learn how to develop programs for Windows. Well, I was completely stumped at first, not knowing how API or MFC worked at all. After ordering this book, I was creating applications for windows and modifying them and _understanding_ it in only a couple days! This book is amazingly well-written and the examples are fun. The book has a wonderful layout and explains everything very well. I definite must for a Visual C++ beginner.

This book is THE book to start out with in Visual C++ 6. It is a fast-paced book that teaches by a "what's this button do?" system. Instead of building an infamous "hello world!" application first, you actually get to build your own text editor (NotePod) that beats the pants off of Windows' Notepad. This is a book I would reccommend to anyone interested in Visual C++ 6 or anyone that was interested in programming in general. However, as is with most computer languages, you musn't get the idea you will make excellent programs that will sell immediately. That takes time and more information that can be included in an introductory book. The book doesn't go as deep as one might hope, but it still is an excellent choice for a book to get aquainted with the Visual C++ enviroment and commands.

I recently decided to learn Visual C++ 6, after finding that there are some limitations to what can be done in Visual Basic. I have been trying to learn from tutorials etc. on the web but they always seem to be unfinished or not cover all of the important stuff. I am only 15 so I thought it was quite a challenge for me to try and learn this so called complex and confusing language. I had taken the foresight before reading this of learning the C++ language and think that that is a must before attempting this book, or Visual C++ at all.

After reading that book, I have a solid understanding of the Windows APIs and can use the MFCs reasonably confidently. I would still class myself as a beginner, but at least now I have a starting point and hopefully can pick-up the rest as I go along. Even after the first 10 pages, I could see that this book was well written and the information inside of it would be easy to take in and understand.

If for some reason you wish to contact me, then you may do so at r_hayden@breathemail.net.

First, I would just like to say that Alexis Rios review is very accurate, with the exception of the number of stars. This book completely misrepresents itself, based on what it claims to cover. It claims to show the reader how to work with the the Windows API (15 page discussion in Ch.2), and learn the MFCs *from the ground up* (not even close) plus a laundry list of other lofty goals that the authors don't achieve.

Alternate chapters are basically cookbook-style handholding exercises where you follow the directions and build an app. Every cookbook chapter is followed by a chapter of *analysis* of the code generated by the wizards. These analysis chapters are where the reader is supposed to learn the details, but the treatment is superficial and poorly organized, while also requiring the reader to be fairly comfortable with concepts of inheritance in C++. I mention this last point because the book also claims to be written for people moving from other languages to VC++.

I feel that if you are new to c++ this book might be useful to learn the VC++ IDE and see what the wizards can do for you, but the *analysis* chapters are a complete waste of time. If you have a good grounding in c++ you will probably feel as burned as i felt.

In summary, what this book will give you is a cookbook-style introduction to the AppWizard and ClassWizard, and alot of whitespace.

This was by far the best.

Its relevent to Version 6.0, many of the others were talking about subjects that were related to Windows 3x etc.. eg they were the same old books with just the covers changed and really just repeating the Scribble Tutorial. The Authors really do act as guides throught the book and provide useful information for any beginner programmer such as myself. Also the book is set out in an easy to follow style that makes following the Author's instructions exceptionally easy, with a wide variety of samples to follow. The only downfall is a few typos in the printed sample codes. However with the CD on board they are easy to rectify .

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Visual C++.

(( I'm off to write 5 real bad reviews now ))

I thought the examples presented in the book, were an excellent starting point for understanding windows programming. Also, the explanations were clear. Visual C++ is difficult to learn, and no one book is going to be the 'magical tell all' but its a great start.

This book is good covering the material presented in it's chapters, but there are many important things that were not covered that are essential for every beginner. First of all you must need to know basic knowledge of the C++ language to understand this book, but if you know C++ and want to learn MFC, you should also buy other books. MFC is covered but is touched slightly. There is no CString manipulation (very important), the database chapter is just a brief and sometimes the examples that even if they work and are a little bit tricky sometimes, you have to figure it out many things by yourself. The book is good indeed specially for rookies, but if you are an experienced programmer you will want more. You need to learn MFC if you want to do good apps, not just the IDE of MSVC. The author compares MSVC with many other tools with the exception of Borland C++ Builder which IMHO is the best C++ tool today and superior to MSVC in many ways, but that's another story. To wrapup things If you are a total beginner to the programming world then this book is for you, if you are an experienced programmer look for something else.

I bought this book because I was looking for a reference to help me use Visual C++ to develop some Windows applications. This book doesn't cover dll development, API calls, or any of the low level things you would want to do in a "real" application. It does give you most of the information you would need to develop simple applications but stops there.

I searched like I always do, subject, average customer rating (making sure that more than a couple of people have rated it) and here it is, "The Blue Book". This book has sat on my desk for 2 weeks and I picked it up this morning and began to read. I haven't been able to set it down since, except to write this review. It's easy to read and anticipates the confusion caused by vague descriptions of MS Visual C++ labels, etc. I give it a five star because it flows easily into the brain, is very descriptive, and doesn't leave huge gray areas to confuse you. Many thanks to the authors, I wish I would have had this book 2 months ago when I was first tasked to create an MFC application.

I bought this book a year ago because I wanted to learn how to write simple applications using MFC and Visual C++ IDE. Unfortunately, after reading first six chapters (especially the ones that explained the MFC from technical point of view), I found myself in a position where I was following author's instruction, but I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't able to grasp the concept of MFC. I was frustrated to say the least.

Here is warning for people who think they ready for MFC. This book will not teach you C++! Before you start reading make sure that you know C++, and understand what principles of Object Oriented Programming. If you don't know what class or object is, you going to end up like me - discouraged, and frustrated.

After about six months I decided to give MFC and this book another look. This time with much stronger understanding of C++ and OOP, and I was surprised how much more I can understand and how much easier is for me to follow the author. The technical chapters now made perfect sense, and later on become very useful. I learned a lot from this book. Thorough the book you write several programs, which gives you nice overall understanding of MFC, and windows programming. I can't say that I'm expert in MFC, but I have a solid foundation on which I can build upon and explore MFC. I read this book twice, and I loved every peace of it. The last chapters seems to be rushed a little bit, and aren't so explanatory like the previous ones.

Experts go look someplace else because this book is strictly for beginners.