Visual C++ Unleashed

Visual C++ 4 Unleashed - SAMS Publishing, 1996. ISBN: 0-672-30874-6
Visual C++ 5 Unleashed - SAMS Publishing, 1997. ISBN: 0-672-31013-9
Programming Windows 98/NT Unleashed - SAMS Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 978-0-672-31628-9

98u.jpg (8537 bytes)This book, originally published in January 1996 under the title Visual C++ 4 Unleashed, provides an in-depth introduction into most Windows C++ programming topics. Intended for the serious developer, the book assumes knowledge of the C++ programming language and the basics of Windows programming. The book's second edition (Visual C++ 5 Unleashed) has also been published in German and Russian; Windows 98/NT Programming Unleashed has a Spanish language edition as well.

The book begins with an introduction to Windows and Win32 programming. This lays the groundwork for an excursion into various MFC and ActiveX programming topics. The last part of the book reviews a series of advanced programming topics, such as MAPI, TAPI, OpenGL, ATL, or DirectX programming.

v5r.jpg (10618 bytes) The goal of this book is to go beyond providing point-and-shoot MFC recipes and show instead how things actually work. In addition to several MFC application examples, there are many simple (10-100 line) examples highlighting a variety of programming techniques. For example, if you still believe that the Windows equivalent of the Hello, World application must necessarily be 600 lines long, click here. Or, if you want to see an OLE automation server done in 300 lines of non-MFC code, click here.

I've seen reviews that stated that the book touches many subjects, and as a result, it is superficial. To some extent, it is necessarily true; when you wish to provide a comprehensive overview of nearly 50 difficult programming topics, even 1000 pages isn't enough. However, I attempted to compensate for this shortcoming by making each chapter self-contained (i.e., at the end of almost all chapters, you will have written a couple of simple, but working programs that demonstrate the concepts discussed.) I also tried to establish the foundations for further study by explaining how and why things work the way they do, as opposed to merely providing step-by-step instructions. The result cannot be that bad because even I use my own book sometimes!

 

Windows 98/NT Programming Unleashed Unleashed Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Part I: Introduction to the Development System
    • 1 Using the Development Environment
  • Part II: Under the Hood: Windows and the Win32 API
    • 2 Operating System Overview
      3 The Message Loop
      4 Windows, Dialog Boxes, and Controls
      5 Resource Files
      6 Drawing and Device Contexts
      7 Threads and Processes
      8 Memory Management
      9 File Management
      10 The Windows Clipboard
      11 The Registry
      12 Exception Handling
  • Part III: Microsoft Foundation Classes
    • 13 Exploring an MFC Skeleton Application
      14 Working with Documents and Views
      15 Dialogs and Property Sheets
      16 MFC Support for Common Dialogs and Common Controls
      17 Using ActiveX Controls
      18 Device Context and GDI Objects
      19 Serialization: File and Archive Objects
      20 Collection Classes
      21 Internet Support Classes
      22 Exceptions, Multithreading, and Other MFC Classes
  • Part IV: OLE, COM, and MFC Applications
    • 23 OLE, ActiveX, and the Component Object Model
      24 OLE Servers
      25 OLE Containers
      26 OLE Drag and Drop
      27 Automation
      28 Building ActiveX Controls with MFC
      29 Using the ActiveX Template Library
      30 ActiveX Documents
      31 Distributed COM
  • Part V: Client/Server Solutions
    • 32 Database Programming Through ODBC
      33 Data Access Objects
      34 OLE DB and ADO
      35 Writing a Windows NT Service
      36 MTS and the Three-Tiered Model
  • Part VI: Networks and Communications
    • 37 Writing Messaging Applications with MAPI
      38 TCP/IP Programming with Winsock
      39 Using the WinInet API
      40 Telephony Applications with TAPI
      41 Named Pipes and Remote Procedure Calls
  • Part VII: Graphics and Multimedia
    • 42 Multimedia Applications
      43 The OpenGL Graphics Library
      44 High-Performance Graphics and Sound: The Game SDK
  • Part VIII: Other Topics
    • 45 Implementing Context-Sensitive Help
      46 Creating Installation Programs
      47 User Interface Extensions
      48 Localization: Creating International Applications
  • Bibliography

Windows 98/NT Programming Unleashed is published by Macmillan Publishing.