Teach yourself visual c++ 6 in 21 days

Introduction

Welcome to Visual C++. Over the next 21 days, you will learn how to use the features

that Microsoft has built into its C++ development environment to enable you to create

very advanced applications for the Windows and NT platforms. When Microsoft’s devel-

opers first came up with the idea behind Visual C++, they decided to take their world-

class C++ compiler and create a development environment and set of tools that would

enable developers to create Windows applications with a level of ease and speed that was

unheard of among C++ development environments. Since that first version, Microsoft

C++ tools. Just in case you find yourself having trouble understanding some aspect of

C++, I’ve included a brief overview of the programming language in Appendix A,

“C++ Review.”

If you’ve looked at previous versions of this book, you might notice that I’ve completely

rewritten the entire book. Our goal with this new version is not just to introduce you to

and guide you through the various tools and resources that you will use to build applica-

tions with Visual C++; I’ve also tried to include a great deal more detail about the vari-

ous options that are available to you with each of the features that are covered. This way,

you’ll be able to get a lot of use out of this book long after the initial 21 days.

How This Book Is Organized

also learn a lot about the Visual C++ development environment and the tools that it

makes available to you.

2 Sams Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days

By the time you begin the second week, you’ll be doing more and more programming, as

the topics become more involved. You’ll still be using the Visual C++ tools to construct

your applications, but the programming code will be getting a little more involved. You’ll

also start learning about more advanced topics, such as displaying graphics and creating

SDI and MDI applications. Toward the end of the second week, you’ll begin to work

with databases. This topic spills over into the third and final week.

ming with Visual C++. You’ll have the skills and know-how required to build most

Windows applications available today.

Conventions Used in This Book

While you are reading this book, you will probably notice a couple conventions that have

been used to make it easier for you to learn the topic being discussed.

All the source code in this book is provided in a monospaced font, as shown in Listing

0.1. This includes all the source code from the applications that you will be building and

illustrations of how various functions can be used. Whenever you are adding new code,

or changing code in a function with other code already there, the line numbers of the

code that you add or change will be pointed out in the text.

If a topic needs special attention, it will be set apart from the rest of the text by one of

several special markers:

●

Notes

●

Tips

●

Cautions

sure that you learned the topic you were studying. Don’t worry—just in case you need

the answers to the quizzes and some guidance when building the exercises, the solutions

are provided in Appendix B, “Answers.”

Enough said! You didn’t buy this book to read about this book. You bought this book to

learn how to use Visual C++ to build Windows applications. So go ahead and flip the

page and get started programming…

Welcome to the world of Visual C++. Over the next three

weeks, you’ll learn how to build a wide variety of applica-

tions using this extremely flexible and complete programming

doing…that’s what you’ll do as you make your way through

this book.

Over the course of the first week, you’ll learn about several

of the basics that are involved in building applications with

Visual C++. This starts on the first day as you learn about and

become familiar with the Visual C++ development environ-

ment by building a simple application.

On Day 2, you’ll begin learning more about the specifics of

building applications in Visual C++. You’ll learn about the

standard controls that are used in Windows applications, how

the user is pressing on the keyboard and how you can react to

these user actions.