Rating: 
Summary: Book does what it is supposed to do.
Review: This is a good book. Why? Because it does exactly what it is supposed to do. You have to accept that VC++ and MFC are way too big to condense into one readable book. What I like about this book is that it get you up and programming quickly. When you are done, you can actually write useful programs. That is, you can create a user interface that hits a database and extracts information. Sadly, that is what most commercial programming is all about. I have read two other great books on VC++ and MFC: 1. Programming Windows With MFC by Jeff Prosise 2. Programming Visual C++ by David J. Kruglinski, et al They are great for learning the every nuck and cranny of how to program windows, but they dont really help you create useful apps quickly. They are great references. But this is the book that will gives you reasonable, doable, "homework." As to the bugs in the source code, I did notice some. But remember, we are programmers!!! Once we get the gist of things, the best way to learn is to no enter in the code verbatum, but to write a little bit of our own. That's how you learn. One last note, to learn VC++/MFC, you really need the MSDN Library. As you are writing code, make sure to look up the objects. Get a good handle on the member functions and variables. Good luck
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book! Crystal explanations
Review: Day 20 dealing with Network Communication through Sockets is one example. For MFC beginners is a "Must have" one.
Rating: 
Summary: From Very good to Excellent
Review: This Book is very good because some book sitll showing the code of C++ , but here you need to know how to code the events within the control or create somthing that are applicable in the windows programming .And the sequence of lesson here is so good not like the other in Visual C++.
Rating: 
Summary: Warning! Don't read this book unless you want to waste time
Review: One of the worst books i've ever read. Don't be temptated by the first few chapters because the material is easy and will not test the quality of the book. Just try to read any of the chapters after CH-12 and you'll see what i mean by (DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME) By the way, i am v.good at C++ but still this is not enough to get use of the book. I think the only one who can fairly understand the book is his author.
Rating:
Summary: Good book from what I've seen so far
Review: Before I say anything I need to tell you, I am a complete beginner to C++. I have only had 3 days with this book to learn some C++. I've done the first 3 "days", and so far I see no mistakes in the example code. I had some trouble compiling because I forgot a ";" at the end of a line or something similar but that isn't the book's fault. I experimented a little with the chapter 2 sample program and found that i screwed it up majorly, but afterwards it took me about an hour to figure out what I did wrong. So then I went back, fixed the errors and it compiled perfectly! Also, the way this book teaches is great! At the end of each chapter there are questions for you to answer and a challenge for you. These are used to reinforce each lesson and help you learn more. BTW, yes I admit the sample code is a little buggy, butonce you've gotten through the muck you'll come out a leap ahead of the people who got perfect code in the C++ reference they bought. This is because when you have something handed to you on a silver platter it doesn't sink in as solidly because all you do is copy the source straight from the book. Lastly I just want to say that the people who gave this book 2 stars, from my point of view, have no idea what they're talking about. 3 days after I got this book (now), I feel confident enough to experiment with most of the basics like forms, buttons, etc... completely on my own. Although I do wish they got to including graphics sooner because, well, what application these days doesn't use graphics? My basic point is that this book is a great guide for anyone who either, wants to learn C++ for use specificly in the VC++ 6 environment, or wants to upgrade from VC++ 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat useful
Review: I purshased this book to learn the "Visual" aspect of Visual C++. In that regard it is on target. Don't get it to teach you C++ because it is not designed to do so and there are lots of good books for learning C++ itself. I like the fact that it stays on the Visual part -- I have seen many "Visual" C++ books that throw in 1-2 chapters on the visual portion as an obvious afterthoughs. The flaws in this book render it half-useless, however. (1) Many of the examples in the text are incorrect and won't compile. (2) There are too many chapters where one rewrites the same drawing program. Since the first chapter drawing program won't compile, and all of the other ones say to do the same things as in that chapter to start with, this renders at least 3 chapters useless. (3) I would prefer more useful examples than another variant of "scribble" (especially since it doesn't work anyway). (4) I downloaded the example chapter code from their website. The chapter codes I tried work, but obviously aren't based on a person working through the actual chapters, since the code has many differences from what you get from the compiler. I expect that they used code from past text revisions, possibly based on earlier versions of Visual C++. (5) It would be helpful if they supplied (either in a CD or at their website) actual code derived from various points in each chapter (e.g., "open file for Chapter 10 version 3 to see the code for the partially completed project on page 210"). (6) It would be good to have MANY more compilable points in the chapters. As it stands, one has to make scores to hundreds of changes between times where it allows compilation. This makes it very difficult for a beginner (i.e., a person who would buy a training text) to get exactly right. (7) The exercise portions of each chapter should be somehow marked, not buried in the text of paragraphs -- this would allow users to work through examples more quickly and not miss some important step. Overall, good fundamentals but badly flawed execution. Quite disappointing compared with the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Good MFC 'how to' non-theoretical starter tutorial
Review: The author's claim that one can learn C++ simulataneously is not one I agree with. My recommendation to anyone interested in the 'Microsoft with C++' world is that they should learn C++ and object oriented concepts first and separately. Try books like 'C++ in 21 days' and Dattatri's 'C++: Effective Object-oriented software construction'. I enjoyed the book as a 'how to' tutorial, but had to look elsewhere to find out how things actually worked (such as message mapping) - so you should use this in conjunction with a more detailed reference, such as 'Professional MFC with Visual C++ 6'. This book however, is excellent for getting one 'up and running' with MFC features. I suggest downloading the source code - it speeds up the rate of progress significantly. Some other criticisms: - Coverage of COM is a little glib and certain COM features are not sufficiently explained, especially in the ADO section. I was pleased to see an ADO section, however, particularly since there isn't currently an MFC wrapper fro ADO. - Terms and answers in the 'Q & A' sections are often only fully explained in subsequent chapters - A problem with the 'type up all this code' tutorial style is that very often half of the codig you do is irrelevant to that day's concepts - a waste of time. A hint: read all the 'Q & A' sections - many nuggets of info are provided there.
Rating:
Summary: Useful tutorial, MFC oriented
Review: The tutorial is clear, the explaination is easy to follow, NOT for a complete C/C++ beginner, if you have C/C++ background, have tasted a tad of VC++, then this book gonna usher you quickly into intermediate or advanced level(depending on your creation ability) in Win GUI programming.The examples in this book are quite practical,easy to extend and covers the main features of GUI programming. It's MFC oriented, and didn't touch on many a topics like ATL, ADSI,OS management, sockets,etc. But do you try to learn all these in 21 days? A good programmer needs good imagination, as soon as you master the basic skills, the rest is largely up to you. It's not the good book that makes you the master but the combination of good book and your creative ability that does. If you're a genius,this book is unnecessary, else,it does help.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good C++ / MFC Resource
Review: Please note, this is a review of the hard cover, Professional Reference edition. I have found this to be an excellent guide and reference. All of the important features of C++/MFC are included in a clear and direct style. I really only have two complaints with the book. First, the author states that he has chosen to omit coverage of reporting through MFC, which may be fine since often times reports are written with other products anyway (Seagate, etc.), but leaves the book somewhat incomplete. Second, the MFC reference section, which is the second half of the book, is on blue paper which makes my eyes go funny. At first the blue looks way too blue, then when returning to the white pages, they tend to all look yellow. I'm no eye doctor but this is a very strange effect. Aside from the colors, the reference section is laid out nicely and quickly provides essentials of MFC functionality without having to wade through a three volume set... and it's handy. You can actually mark it and read it anywhere (what a concept for those of you who are so enamoured with paperless help facilities.) It is also helpful to read the text for a specific example, then refer to the MFC section to see the generalized reference for what was done in the code. This is a good book. Don't be distracted by the negative reviews associated with the paperback version.
Rating:
Summary: VISUAL ...............(and then)........c++
Review: as the name says, VISUAL c++, if it's getting for VISUAL approach then this book is using for it's purpose, it's not a book for those who doesn't know C++ allready. It's show to you a Wizard approach...well a code mistakes here and there could be interesting to repair if you have time knowledge and nerves...if you like everything on the plaid...don't buy a book "in 21 days" series.
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