Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: A superbly comprehensive and detailed win32 reference- invaluable for anyone serious about writing Windows 95/NT applications.
Rating:
Summary: A definitve and exhaustive reference and learning source
Review: Anyone who currently programs in the Win32 environment or wants to learn how to do so needs this book. It exhaustively details the thousands of widgets (i.e. functions, manifest constants, structures, etc) that make up Win32, and provides detailed intellegent discussions of the concepts behind those widgets. These discussions are conducted in excellent English. The examples are mostly in 'C' with some 'C++'.As a consequence this book is not for beginners. You must have a firm grasp of 'C' in order to follow the thread of the model program which is developed in the book. Since this is some of the most difficult programming imaginable, it is not a good place to start learning 'C'. Some of the conceptual discussions are outstanding. I particularly liked the section on coordinate transformations. I had orginally consulted Windows "Help" and Petzold trying to get a handle on this elusive and difficult subject. I found that the explanation in this book was by far the most accessable and exhaustive. The index is particularly well arranged and useful, and add immeasurably to the utility of the book. This book is unique in its structure, in that it serves as both a reference and a teaching guide simultaneously. If one merely needs to refresh the memory or one encounters a new concept that need elaboration, this book will almost certainly fill the bill in the most efficient way possible. I will use this book for many years to come, and wish that I had known about it earlier as it would have saved me an enormous amount of labor. It is one of those rare computer books that is written for the ages, rather than the current release of the software. (the author of this review is a software engineer of over 30 years experience, most of it non-Windows)
Rating: 
Summary: MSVC Biased
Review: At first glance, this book seems excellent because it describes Win32 with a lot of details. The biggest problem is that, the code in the book and the one on the CD-ROM are not the same. For example, while the book describes raw Win32 wonderfully, all of the code on the CD-ROM is 100% Microsoft Visual C++ biased. Just to start, all classes use the MSVC naming convention; of course, that's not a big deal. The real problem is that ALL examples were written using MFC. For example, the combo boxes, list boxes, edit, property sheets, etc, use MFC objects and their code is not transferrable.
This book was supposed to let people using any Windows compatible compiler to use its code. But the code doesn't work. All the manipulations of controls highly rely on how MFC implements them. Therefore, if you are using MSVC and are a Microsoft fanatic, like the authors, this is a good book. If you are using another compiler, you will be extremely disappointed. What a shame? There are not enough books on the subject. The only one I can recommend is Windows 98 Programming (which is out of print, unfortunately).
Rating:
Summary: To be honest, the book is useless, and here is why :
Review: Because it contains so huge examples, that it's impossible to follow the code.
With almost every example, you can find a sentence like this :
"Don't worry about what does it mean", or "You really don't have to know that".
I think, you got the picture.Although, there are over 1500 pages, explanations are very bad, and incomplete.
The book is probably usefull to highly experienced win programmers, but again
Do they need a book about creating windows ? I guess not.
If you are new to windows programming, you won't learn anything from it.
In the matther-of-fact,you could give up after a while (while = few months), like I did.
Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive single windows book available
Review: Get ready for a glowing recommendation. This is absolutely the most informative single book on Windows programming I have ever read. Covers a massive array of windows API funtions and objects. An absolute must for both beginners and experienced programmers due to it's excellent index. You can look just about any term up in the index making the book much easier to digest. Furthermore, the book starts with a skeleton windows application upon which the reader builds more complexity throughout the book. Excellent approach to learning a programming environment. Reminds me of the massive old documentation with comprehensive indexes you would get in the old days. Also comes with a CD containing examples used in the book. Imagine a book you can use for both reference and learning. What a concept!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book with one caveat
Review: I am an experienced software engineer with a Unix/X Window System background and needed to get up to speed on the Win32 API without being coddled like a child or taught how to program. I looked at Win32 books for several months before I found this book on the shelf. I like the organization of the book which starts with the core of a well-behaved Win32 application and moves on to bigger and better things with each chapter. I learned many good Win32 programming habits, such as the proper use of Unicode and <tchar.h>, proper message loop structuring, and so-on from this book. These lessons in Win32 programming were learned the hard way (from the school of hard knocks also called "experience") by the authors so that I didn't have to suffer the same torturous fate. The authors start with the core of a Win32 application and then move through the core GDI objects: device contexts, fonts, windows, etc. Then they proceed to examine all the common controls one by one with an exhaustive reference of all their messages. Along the way, the authors point out places where porting from Win16 to Win32 might be a problem, as well as pointing out known bugs in the MSDN documentation and the Win32 implementation, referencing knowledge base articles for more detail. I also found the advice for those transitioning from a unix background helpful. This might not be the best book for a beginner that has never written a GUI application before, but if you're familiar with the basics of event driven GUI applications from other window systems (AmigaOS, BeOS, MacOS or X Window System), then this book will teach you what you need to know about Win32 without wasting your time explaining things that you already know and understand. If you are a complete beginner, you might be better off with a different book to start with, but still might enjoy this book as a reference once you've got the basics down. When I asked around on usenet about Win32 books, many people suggested Richter's book. I looked at Richter's book many times but it just didn't move me to buy it because I wanted a book that was a more exhaustive reference and one that didn't assume I was a beginner programmer. Several people said "Yeah, I learned from Richter, but /Win32 Programming/ is the book I keep on the shelf. Once I read through Richter, I didn't use it anymore." Another factor is that /Win32 Programming/ is hardback, which makes it stand up to lots of use on a day-to-day basis.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent explanation of the core Win32 API for GUI apps
Review: I am an experienced software engineer with a Unix/X Window System background and needed to get up to speed on the Win32 API without being coddled like a child or taught how to program. I looked at Win32 books for several months before I found this book on the shelf. I like the organization of the book which starts with the core of a well-behaved Win32 application and moves on to bigger and better things with each chapter. I learned many good Win32 programming habits, such as the proper use of Unicode and , proper message loop structuring, and so-on from this book. These lessons in Win32 programming were learned the hard way (from the school of hard knocks also called "experience") by the authors so that I didn't have to suffer the same torturous fate.The authors start with the core of a Win32 application and then move through the core GDI objects: device contexts, fonts, windows, etc. Then they proceed to examine all the common controls one by one with an exhaustive reference of all their messages. Along the way, the authors point out places where porting from Win16 to Win32 might be a problem, as well as pointing out known bugs in the MSDN documentation and the Win32 implementation, referencing knowledge base articles for more detail. I also found the advice for those transitioning from a unix background helpful. This might not be the best book for a beginner that has never written a GUI application before, but if you're familiar with the basics of event driven GUI applications from other window systems (AmigaOS, BeOS, MacOS or X Window System), then this book will teach you what you need to know about Win32 without wasting your time explaining things that you already know and understand. If you are a complete beginner, you might be better off with a different book to start with, but still might enjoy this book as a reference once you've got the basics down. When I asked around on usenet about Win32 books, many people suggested Richter's book. I looked at Richter's book many times but it just didn't move me to buy it because I wanted a book that was a more exhaustive reference and one that didn't assume I was a beginner programmer. Several people said "Yeah, I learned from Richter, but /Win32 Programming/ is the book I keep on the shelf. Once I read through Richter, I didn't use it anymore." Another factor is that /Win32 Programming/ is hardback, which makes it stand up to lots of use on a day-to-day basis.
Rating:
Summary: can't open the door
Review: I bought two books at same time:One is Petzold's book(the best one),the other is this book(bad one). Petzold's book explain very well how to compile the code.It also has very good example.But in this book, I don't know how to compile the example.I tried to see Make file because I already have experience with make file in Petzold's book.But I was surprised at the size of make file in CD-ROM. I also tried to read some page about VC++ envirnment in this book,still nothing.Again I load the examples in VC++ envirnment and tried to compile using VC++ envirnment,but it failed. I think that the author assume the reader know how to compile his example. That is not true. Even if your room has diamond,if you can't open your door,it is nothing.Maybe this book has good example.But I can't open the door. How can I compile codes after I changed them???
Rating:
Summary: This book is so good
Review: I have just started reading this book. This is my first venture into windows programming other then a really bad dialog based app I threw together for a class in a night after purusing a chapter of a game programming book (chapter on win), and a on-line tutor. So far I have found this book great. I had a problem with compilation, that was cuased by some changes in msvc from the 4.2 it was written in to msvc 6 I am using. Commented out 2 macros from extension.h.. then found a updated on Newcomer's (one of the authors) website. Still had some problems, and I decided to e-mail him, not expecting a responce.. and got one the same day! Some changes where made in the link settings from msvc 4.2 to 6. Also need to add comctl32.dll and version.dll to the link list for the setting's. After that it compiled fine. The ppl who where having problems compiling might want to try those 2 things. A excellent book, and I'm not even through chapter 3 yet! Only thing I would like is projects at the end of chapters. -John PS. The author will be adding the full source for the example programs, msvc 6 compatible to his website in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Great authors great book
Review: I have just started reading this book. This is my first venture into windows programming other then a really bad dialog based app I threw together for a class in a night after purusing a chapter of a game programming book (chapter on win), and a on-line tutor. So far I have found this book great. I had a problem with compilation, that was cuased by some changes in msvc from the 4.2 it was written in to msvc 6 I am using. Commented out 2 macros from extension.h.. then found a updated on Newcomer's (one of the authors) website. Still had some problems, and I decided to e-mail him, not expecting a responce.. and got one the same day! Some changes where made in the link settings from msvc 4.2 to 6. Also need to add comctl32.dll and version.dll to the link list for the setting's. After that it compiled fine. The ppl who where having problems compiling might want to try those 2 things. A excellent book, and I'm not even through chapter 3 yet! Only thing I would like is projects at the end of chapters. -John PS. The author will be adding the full source for the example programs, msvc 6 compatible to his website in the near future.
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