Rating: 
Summary: Good transitional book
Review: Davis Chapman, Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days (Sams, 1998)I got through it in twenty-nine days. Not too shabby, considering there are weekends in there and I went through it at work. This is certainly a worthwhile introduction to the basics of VC++ for those who at least have a surface understanding of the language already (I think the straight C++ review in Appendix A may be a little too abstract for the hardcore newbie). Much of what the basic C++ programmer needs to know in order to create working programs in VC++ is covered with competence. There are a few areas of Windows-specific programming the author could have discussed in greater depth (especially more advanced graphics programming than the usual drawing program), but those faults are common to most books about VC++, and have existed since the first books on the first release of the program. Very good for those moving over to VC++, especially from command-line-based platforms. *** ½
Rating: 
Summary: learn nothing
Review: This book was really disappointed me. Before i buy this book i skim to it and it contain many feature of window and some ADO ActiveX stuffs so i bought it. Well at that time i know c++ but nothing about window programming. i thought this book would be good introductory to me on VC++. But this book only present a step to make a simple application. It very skim on detail no explaination on how or why you will code it this way. It like a "just remember and do what i told". So after you reading this book you can only program what is in the book but cann't program an alternative or adapted one. That is not learing. Also it doesn't explain anything about windows programming it doesn't even has a topic about Winmain procedure or Message loop you will know nothing about it. Yeah it like "Hey look mom i can make a menu or draw pixel with mouse i can code it see" but why code it this way well i don't know.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: For those programming in C++, Microsoft Visual Studio can be both a blessing and a curse. There are many instances in program and project development where the package can be very helpful and save hours in development time. This is usually the case for commercial applications. For technical or scientific applications written in C++ though, Visual Studio can be very painful, as it does given the developer a view of what is going on behind the scenes. Individuals who are doing scientific applications usually want to have control of most of code, and so templating and the Application Wizard can be more of an annoyance rather than of help. For this reason, scientific programmers will probably not want to read this book at all. But frequently these days, scientific programmers are involved in developing applications in areas such as finance and bioinformatics, and so a study of this book would then be appropriate. Readers of the book are expected to have a thorough knowledge of C++, but the author gives a short (36 page) review in an appendix to the book for those who need such a review. For readers who are writing Windows applications using Visual C++, the author has done a pretty good job of overviewing how to develop with Visual Studio. He begins with the simplest features of Visual Studio, and builds up to more advanced features, to the extent possible in Visual Studio. Some features of Visual Studio are so entrenched at all levels of the package that it is difficult to separate them out, being themselves advanced features, at early stages in the book. This is readily apparent in the author's use of the "WinExec' function instead of the "CreateProcess" function, since the latter is deemed to complicated for the beginning reader. The Class Wizard and AppWizard are brought in early on, no doubt to encourage the reader to become adept at using them as soon as possible. The major goal of the book then is to get the reader to create a Windows application as soon as possible. Some helpful and useful discussions in the book include: 1. The Q&A section at the end of the chapter, wherein the author attempts to anticipate a typical reader's questions after they have finished the chapter. 2. The review sections at the end of each week, detailing to readers just what they are expected to know before moving on. 3. Binary attribute flags, for memory-senstive applications that need window and control capabilities. 4. The creation of custom dialog windows; the author is very detailed here and he also shows the role of the MFC class library in creating these. 5. ActiveX controls are introduced fairly early, and this is good considering their importance and pervasiveness in current applications. 6. How to make application objects serializable using the CArchive class and Serialize function. Performance and legacy issues with serialization dictate that particular attention be made to this discussion. 7. Database access and updating. Performance issues involved in database access again make this discussion mandatory reading for those who are involved in these kinds of applications, particularly for database applications that are used in a client/server configuration with a database server that is accessed over a wide-area network. The author does not discuss these issues unfortunately, but ADO, which is used to build a database application in the book, has had performance problems in the past. 8. The creation of library modules and dynamic link libraries. For creating software for scientific purposes where classes should be used from one application to another, this discussion is particularly appropriate. The author also spends a small amount of time on how to create test applications to test these modules. In addition, he shows how to convert a regular DLL so that it can be used by applications not created with Visual Studio. The author mentions that in the design of DLLs one must insure that they be "threadsafe". Multithreading in C++ however is not a subject that is usually encountered in a course on C++, so this inclusion may cause difficulty for some readers. This is alleviated somewhat in a later discussion on threads. 9. How to add multitasking to applications. Multithreading again makes its appearance here, but in this case the author spends more time on explaining the origin and need for it. The author details a fun example of multithreading that involves four spinning color wheels. 10. The discussion on creating Internet applications. Although the author does not dicuss performance issues in creating these, he does give some basic background on how actually to program them.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for learning Visual C++
Review: I recently purchased this book after looking through it at a local book store. I've been using C++ for a few years but my college only taught command prompt programs using Dos and Unix so I've been looking for a good way to learn Visual C++.
I find this book to be great. It's easy to understand and use, and I'm learning a lot about Visual C++. I think the book does a good job of explaining the code and what the code does.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it.
Review: This book really doesn't teach much. It shows you how to use the MFC wizards, which are all well and good, but the entire book revolves around them. Furthermore, it employs more of a "Monkey see, monkey do" approach by simply showing you what to click for the specific program without explaining what is being done, due to which it also is lacking as a desk reference. I am an experienced C++ programmer with DOS but had not used Visual C++ before this book. Since most of the other 21 days books are great, I picked this one up. I wish I hadn't.
Rating:
Summary: The Visual C++ Wizards Perform Magic...
Review: This book writes all of its programs using the wizards in visual C++. They make it easier to write the code but the book explains nothing of what the wizards are doing. If you make a mistake you are out of luck trying to figure out what you did, unless you allready know MFC in which case this book is too big for the little information it can give you. I finaly purchased
"Programming Windows with MFC second edition," by Jeff Prosise and it looks like a much better aproach to learning the same material. I think it will take more than 21 days to learn no mater what book you buy.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for Visual C++
Review: (...)If you are not familiar with C++ and OOP then this book is not for you. Buy something else as an introduction to C++. The book is presented in the best possible way with an easy introduction and moving slowly forward with great explanations.
The first three chapters show you how to create and interact with a dialog-based application. Chapter four is also a dialog based but it is concentrated on working with timers. Chapter five shows you how to create child dialog boxes and how to read the return values in order to update the values in the parent window. Chapter six teaches you how to create menus and popup menus. (In this chapter the sample code contains few erros but nothing too big) Chapter 7 gives a brief introduction on listing fonts installed on you system and explains the idea behind the callback functions and how they work. Chapter 8 introduces you to device context, pens, brushes and bitmaps. It explains in details the device context and how to use it. In chapter 9 you get to work with the MS FLexGrid as this chapter shows you how to incorporate ActiveX in your applications. Chapter 10 and 11 are big as they explain SDI and MDI applications and give you some very good information on Document/View architecture. You create a drawing application and you implement serialization. Chapter 12 shows some ways of working with toolbars and status bar. Author shows you how to create controls on the toolbar which are not available at the design time. A better way would be to use CReBar but that is not covered in this book. Chapter 13 is all about Serialization and explains how it works but not how to change the way you store information (ASCII or binary). This is somethinfg you should know from C++. Chapter 14 is an introduction to ODBC programing. In this chapter and chapter 15, the author uses the database created with Access 95 and if you upgraded to newer version of Office you will have to create your own database or use any database and adapt the code to suit your own needs (I found this to be far better than just entering the authors code) In chapter 15 you are introduced to ADO data access model. I loved this chapter and if you are a DB developer you will be very happy with it. In chapter 16 you learn how to create you own classes and libraries. Not like creating C++ libraries but the libraries for work with VC++. In chapter 17 you get to create DLL's. I was pretty disappointed by this chapter as it shows you how to link you dll so it activates at the run-time of your application. You don't get to see how to use other DLL's and how to access them using API calls like LoadLibrary. Chapter 18 is a brief introduction to multithreading. The code in this chapter was a bit strange especially the one in OnIdle function. The part which shows you how to create an entry function for you threads is erroneous as it cannot be declared as the class member. You also get to know the difference between managing access to shared resources, like Critical Sections, Mutexes, Semaphores and Events BUT... you don't get to use them. Chapter 19 shows you how to create your own ActiveX Controls. Chapter 20 introduces you to Network communcations and it explains just what you need to know for that chapter. I could not run the code as it displayed GPF as soon as the connection is established. Chapter 21 is about creating you own web browser. You don't see a lot of code but it works. At the end there are additional chapters but I did not go thru them. Mostly about C++, answers to questions and some other stuff. The books is good but it could have been better. Worth buying it.
Rating:
Summary: Click here and there and execute
Review: This book is probably the worst book for learning VC++.When I bought this book ,I was a competent C++ programmer.However I still could not make anything of this book.This is the only book on my shelf that I have attempted to read more than 3 times in order to understand and have failed and that is just the first 3 chapters.
This book just teaches you to use the VC++ environment and unless you know about Windows messages and MFC you aren't going to get anywhere.It tellls you to click here and there and run the application>No mention is made of what is going on.
The only people who gave this book above 3 stars would probably be those who know how to generate some programs through the App wizard or who already know Windows programming and concepts.
I would recommend Beginning vC++ by Ivor Horton for learning VC++.
Rating:
Summary: Mark
Review: I think this is a very good book for beginner. you can learn a lot of Visual C++ 6 on this book. The only reason for not getting a 5 star mark is that you have to have the programm on your on because you do not get a CD-Rom withit.
Rating: 
Summary: From VB to VC++
Review: Hello, i would recommend this book because it helps you when you have (like me) previous experience in Delphi and/or VB. Don't expect the knowledge to come just by reading the book. You have to do something for it. I always try not to "read" the book, but rather "understand" and "implement" what the author wanted me know. I am currently at day 4, and my interest is still here. So far i have been doing it without Visual C++ here. I paid 40€ (euro) for it.
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