Rating: 
Summary: Good Introduction to MFC
Review: ...I am pleased with the organization of the material covered in this book. The Deitels start the book with a warm-up chapter on working in the Visual C++ IDE, moving on to creating basic GUIs using MFC; these GUIs include dialogs, frames, toolbars, menu bars, command buttons, etc.. The info on message mapping and handling was very helpful: That's the basis for MFC programming. Like the title implies, this book is an introduction to Visual C++ programming using MFC; do not expect to become an expert in Windows programming after reading this book. Becoming an efficient MFC programmer takes years of practice, but if you need to start from somewhere, then give this book a try! Nevertheless, this book won't do you much good if you are not already a C++ programmer. This book is short, yet detailed like any other book by the Deitels. I own three other books by them and they've become permanent references in my computer programming library. Their publications go way below the surface of programming languages to extract the essential concepts needed for their readers to become proficient programmers.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction to MFC
Review: ...I am pleased with the organization of the material covered in this book. The Deitels start the book with a warm-up chapter on working in the Visual C++ IDE, moving on to creating basic GUIs using MFC; these GUIs include dialogs, frames, toolbars, menu bars, command buttons, etc.. The info on message mapping and handling was very helpful: That's the basis for MFC programming. Like the title implies, this book is an introduction to Visual C++ programming using MFC; do not expect to become an expert in Windows programming after reading this book. Becoming an efficient MFC programmer takes years of practice, but if you need to start from somewhere, then give this book a try! Nevertheless, this book won't do you much good if you are not already a C++ programmer. This book is short, yet detailed like any other book by the Deitels. I own three other books by them and they've become permanent references in my computer programming library. Their publications go way below the surface of programming languages to extract the essential concepts needed for their readers to become proficient programmers.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Elementary
Review: Fair book, but if you have any knowledge of MFC, go for something else. It doesn't cover any of the more complex classes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Companion to "How to C++ Program" 2E
Review: I think it is a great companion to "C++ How to Program 2/E" I have purchased "Teach Yourself Visual C++6 in 21 Days", the professional reference edition, but it uses the wizards so much you can't quite catch everything that is going on. Deitel's book teaches you strait programing techniques without the wizard, that are easy to understand, and implament. Like it says. It is Getting started, so the basics are here. You will probably need another book to learn how to use some of the more integrated things.
Rating:
Summary: A great primer for MFC
Review: I'd been struggling for a while with the tutorial examples in the MSDN library, and another book I had was more "do this and it will work", rather than "this is how function x works". This book has really hit the spot, and I've been able to write some simple MFC programs and fully understand how they work.
Just about every line of code is explained clearly, so there are no problems with snippets of code being left as a mystery.
The book doesn't use the wizards for quick MFC programming - I see that as a plus. This way you learn more about how the actual code works, rather than taking it for granted. Besides, it is very easy to have a play with the wizards and tinker with the code after gaining the knowledge from the book.
This book isn't the definitive guide to MFC, but then it doesn't claim to be. It is an excellent starter book, one I heartily recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: A good starting point
Review: I'm not a software type although I do have some background in programming. I wanted to learn C++ to build my own applications for my computer, but I wanted the learning curve to be reasonable so that I can do it on my spare time. I purchased this book and Liberty's book "SAMS Teach Yourself C++ in 24 hours" which gets into ANSI/ISO C++ programming. You can purchase both books from Amazon for under $45. The two books complemented each other perfectly, and in about 8 weeks spending about an hour each day, I can program applications using my compiler. These two books were perfect for a novice like myself. What was nice was that both books came with a working compiler and all the examples were available either as a download or was available on the CD-ROM. What I found somewhat lacking in this book was detailed explanations of all the commands that was used in the examples, and how to expand on the examples so more different types of programmings can be created, but the book is very short and that's what I was looking for - something that doesn't require 1000 pages of reading, so I guess I can't have it both ways. What these books doesn't do is that it won't teach you the more sophisticated operating system related things like how to access a disk or other I/Os. If you are trying to learn this level of programming, you need to move up to a higher level books such as the "Win32 System Programming: A Windows(R) 2000 Application Developer's Guide (2nd Edition)" by Johnson M. Hart. But to get started on C++ programming, after many false starts over the years, these two books did it for me.
Rating:
Summary: A good overview of Windows for those who already know C++
Review: Make no mistake, this is a book about Visual C++, Microsoft Foundation Classes and beginning Windows programming. It provides a good introduction with complete programs to demonstrate the concepts. The exercises and programming problems provide insight into the text and give readers a chance to put their understanding into practice. Also, if you are using this as an instructor, be aware the examples have not been updated to use the STL or the newer ANSI cast functions. If you are looking for a short overview, this book is for you. If you are looking for a more comprehensive text on VC++, search for books with a higher page count. If you are looking to learn C++, try the Deitel's other book, C++ How To Program.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, good examples, but not all that useful
Review: Positives: First I thought the book was very good in that it was very explicit in its examples. Most books have enough ambiguity so that running the examples is cumbersome. Not so in this book where instructions are explicit, examples have no typos and screenshots are useful. I also found the content interesting - it shows you the inner workings of MFC. Finally, I applaud the authors for trying to write a smaller book (only 140 pages compared to 1000 pages for most programming books). Negatives: The book does not use the Visual C++ wizards. The author states this up front. But who would actually use Visual C++ without the wizard tools? I think after showing the information about MFC the author could have then shown how to do the same things with the wizards.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Little book
Review: Reading this little book (only 163 pages!) is the best way for a complete novice to get started learning MFC. The examples in the book are clear and easy to understand and all code is carefully commented line by line. No black magic anywhere. After reading this book you will understand the basic principles behind MFC. The book of course only covers a small part of MFC. The authors do not cover Wizards and the Document/View architecture. So after reading this book you must read some other book that covers those topics. There are lots of them. You will find a dozen in any book store. But read this book first. Otherwise Wizards and Document/View apps will just seem like black magic. This book will give you a solid foundation that helps you understand what you are doing.
Rating:
Summary: Too slow and too little
Review: The book is great if you just need to know MFC in few days. The plus point is use of good examples. But what is lacking is "why you have to do that" explainations. Also, something which is very irritating is the almost constant reference to the companion book (how to program in c++). It is almost as if telling if you dont have that book then you cant expect to accomplish much.
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