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Summary: Did same author write the second half?
Review: As several others have noted, there is a substantial style difference between the first and second halves of this book.The simple direct elegance of the first half was replaced by quite the opposite in the second half. This is a very good book for C++. It is a far less desirable book for Visual C++.
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Summary: So Microsoft Succeeded in Building an MPI between Objects?
Review: If you read this book and know some Elementery staff about Parallel programming then you will notice that Microsoft might have succeeded in making a Message Passing Interface for Windows not between processors but between abstract object models. Ivor Horton takes you by the hand and explains in good detail the philosophy of MFC but he always keeps himself on the ground providing useful examples that make you learn. Everything in the book is needed to make the transition from ANSI C++ -----> Windows - OOP using C++ code instructions. But all of this is ok but listen to a song that I will whisper to my students when I have some: "Don't be angry because I teach C++ in Ansi, I am sure it is worse than looking to your cute girlfriend Nansi, But be patient and enjoy the ride, I am sure you will certainly at the end appreciate this waste of time" A cute inliner code taken from this book: void Swap(int& a, int& b) { a ^= b; b ^= a; a ^= b; }//Be carefull only swap integer values with this code!
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Summary: Not good as expected
Review: This book spends a lot of space in introducing C++ fundamentals. I think this book is only good for dummy users and the ones who really don't know programming in C++. It doesn't suit the title of the book. The example in VC is not good at all and the explanation is not understandable. I think the VC part is in very poor quality.
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Summary: Ivor is king!
Review: I also purchased Ivor's book on Java programming and I was up and running with in no time. The same goes for this book, this is, although, a rathar large one (1000+ pages) but it's no professionaly written, so understanble. Makes learning a pleasure, even if it is the pain that C++ is. It starts off with the very basics of C++ and moves up the scale to Pointers, Classes, OO programming and of course, MFC. Beginner? head this way!
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Summary: Not for totally new comer
Review: In chapter 5 , it is hardly understand the example given. Examples are, pointer and reference. Especially the try it out section of the returning a Reference. To read this book, I need to catch up in mathematics calculation parts and programming which will consume more time to read as my math is average level.
Rating:
Summary: good for some, but not for all
Review: If you are a competent C++ programmer, this may not be the best book for. Roughly half of the book is devoted to C++. I would have preferred if the book focused solely on MFC and VC++. That way would have allowed for greater depth and coverage of the very large subject of MFC. Horton did a good job of explaining the example code. The example application which spans multiple chapters is usefull in that it introduces one to handling larger projects in VC++. I cannot comment on the first half of this book as I did not need to read it. This is a good book for someone who needs to learn C++ and intends to go on to the basics of MFC.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: -Are you transitioning from Borland Turbo C++ to Microsoft's Visual C++ 6? This book is for you. -Are you new to programming? I recommend purchasing a complimentary book by Dr. Jasma called, "Rescued by C++", and a copy of Microsoft Visual C++ 6 standard edition (software-Compiler). **Buy all three and you are ready to learn C++. You don't need any other book initially. You may add on, Practical C++ by Rob McGregor to aide as a 3rd reference.
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Summary: Good Intro to C++, but...
Review: As a Windows Programming MCT, I constantly read "Beginner" books to recommend to my students to supplement or provide backgrounders to the Microsoft Official Curriculum. The book does a pretty good job until you get to Windows programming. Actually I think it's one of the better books to learn the fundamentals of C++ programming. However, the treatment of structures leaves a little to be desired, with common structures that appear throughout the entire Windows API being glossed over in Chapter 7. Contrary to several other reviews, the intro to MFC is not that bad, and provides a good background to move on to other texts more devoted to the subject. ATL should be removed from the text completely. This subject requires a more detailed explanation of COM which is simply not appropriate for a beginers text. My recomendation would be to expand the section on structures in a Windows context. Also, version 6 of Visual Studio introduced OLE-DB as a solution for Universal Data Access, yet there is no mention of it here. Instead the author has applied a cut and paste from the version 5 of the book to give us ODBC. It would've been more appropriate to mention something about OLE-DB templates, and focus on ADO. Overall however, this is a book I would recommend for beginners, to continue with Programming Windows with MFC, 2nd Ed by Jeff Proise.
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Summary: Teaches not only syntax but also how to apply it, the best!
Review: I started C++ programmming with another book and although I have had quite a bit background programming experience I found the authors methods confusing. Then I went to my local bookstore and starting flipping through the pages of this book wondering if it was lack of concentration on my part. I was instantly impressed with how the author clarified each new topic, not leaving much open for guessing. Even more impressive is how he teaches each topic with practical ways of applying it to real life programs and situations. This was especially helpful when he explained pointers, because up to that point I really hadn't had to deal with anything that low of a level. If you wish to learn C++ and Microsofts Visual IDE this is the best book there is.
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Summary: I agree with August 29 review
Review: I work as a C++ developer but was new to MFC before reading this book. It's important to note that the first half is about C++, the second half is about MFC and is equivalent to the other Wrox book: Beginning MFC Programming. I only read (and did most of the extra exercises too!) the second half of the book since I already knew C++ quite well. The author's approach is to have you build up a fairly substantial and functional MFC app by adding more and more advanced features to it as you go along. It's a sketching/drawing application and will interest you if you like graphics apps. Other books tend to take a different approach - they tend to show very simple applications or code snipets to demonstrate each new MFC feature/topic. Horton's approach is different - you will be mostly working with the same app for several chapters. This has the benefit of showing you how to structure a non-trivial Visual C++/MFC application. Advanced C++ programmers typically already know how to structure large programs and probably don't need this - they usually prefer to see simple code examples that illustrate how the class is used. Maybe that's why you see a lot of negative reviews here from people looking for the ultimate MFC book which is not the intent of this book. Horton shows you a design philosophy that you will see over and over again - the concept of creating document objects/classes that can "draw" themselves given a device context. e.g. pShape->Draw(pDC, ...); Beginners will probably have a lot of difficulty understanding the mapping mode (MM_ANISOTROPIC, etc) topics. Horton includes it because it's important for graphics apps like Sketcher. He actually explains things better and more completely than advanced MFC books. For example, he actually gives you the equations for transforming between document/model coordinates and device coordinates. While I (as a person who is interested in computer graphics and all the math that entails) appreciates this, I'm sure that for some beginners, this will be over their heads. The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that the Author takes the sketcher app one or two chapters too far. At one point, I thought the app was complete and deleted it from my workspace before going onto the next chapter. Then a couple of chapters later, he uses it again and I had to drag it off my floppy. My suggestions: 1. Make sure you know your C++ before looking at MFC in this book or another other book for that matter. I recommend learning C++ from some of the classic (not-compiler specific) texts by authors such as Pohl, Lippman, etc. 2. The book leads you through the wizards and where to add custom code in a step-by-step manner. It is very complete in this sense and there are plenty of snapshots. If you follow his directions, you shouldn't get lost anywhere. 3. Don't just read the book. Do the exercises. If you get stuck, look up the answers at the back of the book. Download source code from Wrox if necessary. 4. After reading this book, you will need a more advanced book on MFC that explains it from first principles and that talks about Win32 API and MFC internals. I suggest Prosise, Feuer, or the new Professional MFC 6
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