Programming WindowsŪ, Fifth Edition (Microsoft Programming Series) (Hardcover)

This book sits upon my desk as the #1 reference when writing win32 code (without MFC). If your new to programming and are thinking about MFC I would consider starting with this non-object oriented approach so you understand what MFC is doing behind all the objects.

Easy reading (compared to other programming books) and a great deal of learning can be done.

To 4th edition "Programming Windows 95" owners:

1. If you want to use ToolBar's you better hold on to the last revision because it's missing in this one. I was very unhappy about that.

2. It's huge! If you thought carrying that last book was an issue, add a hard cover and a ton more pages and you've better start working out before carrying this around.

3. More usage of UNICODE and "NT" style information that is repeated in each code segment so be prepared.

It's a revision, and it's good. It's the best out there right now, but will not solve every problem you'll have.

Note: If you like object oriented, and uses of all the enhanced features of C++ you're not going to find it here.

The book is peppered with occasional historical asides. If you can't stand historical asides, you may be frustrated, but it's understandable that a guy who's been programming Windows for 15 years will have a few stories to tell.

The book has excellent, awesome, unbeatable, all-that-almost-anybody-would-ever-need coverage of: window procedures and messages, keyboard and mouse input, fonts and character sets/Unicode, the GDI (including mapping modes and metafiles), dialog boxes and child/MDI windows, palettes and bitmaps of all kinds, menus and resources, timers, and printing.

The book has very good coverage, without going into the really advanced details, of: DLLs, multithreading, MIDI and wave audio, Winsock, and internet functions.

Notable omissions are: registry functions, file I/O, COM/OLE/ActiveX controls, Setup applications, the Shell (links, namespace extensions, screen savers, WinHelp), and the common controls (toolbars, sliders, tree views, property sheets/wizards, list views and header controls).

Despite its omissions, this book is well worth its money for anyone who wants to learn (or learn more) about the Windows API.

As always it's important to know what a book is NOT. This book is not a tutorial for writing windows applications, nor does it discuss MFC or most of the common methods used today for rapidly producing computer programs. This is not REALLY a reference book on win32 either.

Instead it provides a tutorial-style documentation for the monstrous win32 API at its most fundamental levels. This book sets the standard for all other code written for any modern version of windows. It addresses real world issues and real world solutions to those problems (such as the chapter dedicated to making unicode friendly programs), as well as some historical issues (the difference between wParam and lParam).

No manual is without its flaws. This book is a bit too braod spectrum in the detail levels. There are places in the book where he will delve into details that you could care less about, and there are points that he will put in two or three sentences and assume you understand, although you may not.

Despite this, this book is essential to everyone writing code for Microsoft Windows (ANY version). You needn't read it cover to cover, but readiny section I (about 1/3 of the book) is essential. My one wish is that this book came in three volumes, if you haul it between home and school/office it gets to be buronsome. That's about all I can really complain about with this book.