MFC Programming (Addison-Wesley Advanced Windows Series) (Paperback)

by Alan R. Feuer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
MFC Programming covers all the basic aspects of a Windows program, including menus, windows, dialogs and controls, the mouse and graphics, the keyboard, and text. It also details MFC's application framework covering documents and various types of views.

From the Back Cover
Windows applications using C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library. The text builds from the ground up, first describing the Windows architecture and showing how MFC works with that architecture; next covering the document/view framework that simplifies the creation of industrial-strength programs; and finally illustrating advanced concepts like the usage of dynamic link libraries (DLL), creating Internet clients, and building form-based applications.

MFC Programming answers the hard questions by diving below the surface presented in the Reference Manual. For example, all types of controls are discussed, including the common controls, owner-draw controls using message reflection, and tool tips within a dialog. All of the common dialogs are described along with the the various methods of customization. Serialization is covered in depth, including serializing collections, reading and writing custom file formats, and using versionable schemas. Printing and previewing are described in detail, including printing of forms, scaling output to fit on a page, printing of headers and footers, and customization of the Page Setup dialog. Debugging strategies are explored, along with fixes to a few bugs encountered in MFC along the way.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains source code for all programs in the book, including:

• Window explorer, creates windows in a wide variety of styles
• Control sampler, illustrates all of the Windows controls including the common controls
• Word processor, built using the rich-text control and all of the common dialogs
• Graphics application, a line-drawing program written without using the document/view framework
• MDI application, a graphical and textual application written using document/view that illustrates multiple status bars, split and scrolled views, and serialization of objects and data
• Hangman game, a sophisticated use of a dynamic dialog
• Address book, a multi-paned form-based front-end to a database
• Wizard installer, a setup program that shows how to create wizard-mode property sheets
• a DLL-based application, illustrates extension and resource DLLs
• an Internet client, integrates MFC's Internet classes with the document/view framework.

0201633582B04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (June 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201633582
• ISBN-13: 978-0201633580
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #519,080 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent first MFC book!, February 16, 1999

By A Customer

As a 4th year CS BSc student I might claim to be the owner of the greatest number of MFC books. Most are like the curate's egg - good in parts. It is with regret that I came upon Feuer's book so late in the buying sequence. Had I discovered it earlier my bank account would now be better and that of Amazon somewhat less!

My MFC library ranges from the 'Do it in 24 hours' variety (often laughable - but even they often have something to offer) through to MS professional tomes which seem like those job offers where you need not only the ability but a few years experience as well. Another excellent book is Kruglinski but this only proves it's worth once you have nearly got the whole idea well understood. Feuer - much better as a starter - assumes little except a good C++ base and then takes one forward step by step.

I very strongly recommend Feuer for anybody with a good C++ basis wanting to move to VC++ and MFC. This is the one to start with if you want to protect your cash. Kruglinski should come after and then you're ready for the MS serious stuff! Happy coding!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good as a second MFC book, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 because it was published in 1997 and is somewhat outdated now. I purchased it in mid 99 because I liked the other book in the series, Win32 Programming by Brent Rector.

Feuer's book is consise and I like his approach of explaining some of the internals of MFC, such as what BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP expands out to. Feuer talks about the Win32 API too and I agree with his philosophy that MFC programmers can't hope to get by without knowing anything about the API.

The sample code applications on the CD are great. They are simple to understand, but show you most of the options possible. For example, there is one app that displays all kinds of buttons, including owner drawn ones. Most MFC books don't even say anything about owner draw stuff. At the end of the book, Feuer shows you how to make a wizard-based install program.

I recommend reading this book after you've read a beginner's book on MFC and/or Visual C++. Also, the author does not reproduce all of the sample code in the book itself. You should install the CD and read the actual code as you read the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great MFC Book (from what I see so far)!, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

Have been looking for a MFC book for sometime now, I came across this book, it wasn't as large as most other MFC books but I own many programming books and larger is not always better, most of the time the larger the book the more BS it includes. The book includes "real world" examples like the tree view example isn't just a tree view which includes 1-9 or some other BS it is you local drive structure! I have only been skimming through this book for about an hour and it has already answered about 50% of my questions! If you know C++ and want to learn MFC then this is a great book! It teaches MFC not the C++ language structure or how to use all of the wizards which most MFC books waste the first 3 - 4 chapters on!