Win32 reading material

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    • Win32 reading material

      Is it possible to have ISBN(s) for the recommended reading on page xxiv under (STL) or location addresses if in the web?
      I have a little C++ experience but have never used win32 is there a book that you would recommend for use with .NET (ISBN if you have it).
      Many thanks,

      Edward.
      Edward
    • Win32 reading material

      Hi there! Has anyone any suggestions on a suitable book for .NET win32 programming that I can use to get into Game Programming and make sense of Mr Mike's book?
      Maybe you all have on the job introduction/training to this part of the .NET compiler?

      Regards,

      Edward.
      Edward
    • RE: Win32 reading material

      Eh, .NET with C/C++ isn't a whole lot different than other Visual Studios, or even other IDEs. It's when you get into the Runtime Environment with C# and such that you get into new territory (though most of THAT seems stolen from Sun's Java).

      If you aren't used to IDEs, then learning one can be a bit frustrating, though.
      -Larrik Jaerico

      www.LarrikJ.com
    • "Managed C/C++" is a little weird.

      Personally, unless you really want to use something in the Common Language Runtime, I'd stick with plain C++ under Windows. For the very basics of Win32 programming I recommend Programming Windows by Charles Petzold.

      As far as STL books, try The C++ Standard Template Library by Nicolai Josuttis.

      If it's just Visual Studio .NET that has you buggered try Visual C++ .NET Step By Step. It covers both managed and unmanaged C++, and how to get them to work together even....

      Rich
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."
    • win32 reading material

      Thanks to Rich & Larrik for your replies.
      I have run a search on the Authors mentioned by Rich and find that Charles Petzold has many books to his credit mostly for C# & VB, the search however didnt locate a C++ book, though there is one for the .NET Framework listed as follows:

      General Computing ISBN: 0735611319
      OS Windows 98 Programming ISBN: 157231995X
      .NET Framework Programming ISBN: 0735621535
      C# Programming ISBN: 0735618003
      MS Windows with C# Programming ISBN: 0735613702
      VB.NET Programming ISBN: 0735617996

      Is the suggested Charles Petzold book in this list?

      ******************************************************

      A search on the Author Nicolai Josuttis produced three results:

      C++ Programming ISBN: 0201379260
      C++ Templates the Complete Guide ISBN: 0201734842
      Object Orientated Programming in C++ ISBN: 0470843993

      I think your suggested book must be C++ Templates the Complete Guide ISBN: 0201734842?

      ******************************************************

      If you think (Managed C/C++ is a little weird) what other approach would you suggest?

      If I am to finish well I must make the best start!

      Thanks for all your suggestions,
      Edward
    • RE: win32 reading material

      Programming Windows Fifth Edition by Charles Petzold - ISBN 1-57231-995-X msdn.microsoft.com/library/def…/dnprogwin/html/intro.asp

      This matches ISBN with your "OS Windows 98 Programming" listing, but it covers the Win32 API. As of the Fifth Edition it required Win98/WinNT 4.0 or later. I can confirm that all WinNT samples will run on Win2K but I haven't fiddled with this material on WinXP yet.

      As far as Managed C++ I'd get a copy of Visual C++.NET step by step since it covers managed and unmanaged C++ in VS.NET and how to get them to interact. I think it feels weird to program with the managed C++ stuff, but it's probably just me - all of that garbage collection stuff I'm just not accustomed to. And I haven't really looked into it, but it might even use the same boxing scheme that C# uses, which means you have to fiddle with that too.
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."
    • win32 reading material

      Thanks again to Rich for further comment on my thread,

      The Charles Petzold book for OS Windows 98 programming looks as if it is an older publication than a book that I already have had for some time, "Mastering Visual C++ 6" by Michael J Young ISBN: 0-7821-2273-6 by Sybex, this book allocates a few pages to templates scattered throughout the book relating to MFC but is structured to the building of Business applications of various types and there is no lead into what could be described as a Game based application.

      I imagine this to be a background image possibly larger than the active window moving by changing the relationship of the image base coordinates with that of the window coordinates where a top layer image array simulates the movement of the game character(s)

      I will have a look at the book Visual C++.NET step by step
      Thanks again for your interest.
      Edward
    • RE: win32 reading material

      You don't want to use GDI for games... pick up LaMothe's "Tips of the Windows Game Programming Gurus", and you'll be completely satisfied (you'll also want to punch him in the head whenever you read his <G>)

      It has nothing to do with .NET (since I think its slightly too old), but it goes over everything you'd need to know to make a 2d Windows game.
      -Larrik Jaerico

      www.LarrikJ.com

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Larrik ().

    • Petzold's book is everything you'd really need to know to handle most tasks in a strictly Windows fashion. Threads, file IO, etc. It is purely a Windows programming book - no games or anything that strongly resembles them. And yes, it has nothing whatsoever on .NET. Purely Win32 programming (just adressing the topic of the post, man :] ). I've also got a few books on more "to the metal" Windows programming on the way, I'll let you know how those taste when I get to 'em.

      I have to agree that "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" is a fairly good intro to Windows Game programming, and that Andre's writing style is slightly aggravating (but I found it fairly amusing and it kept me from sleeping through anything important). Another pretty good one is "The Zen of Direct3D Game Programming."
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."
    • win32 reading material

      Thanks to Rich & Larrik for your replies, your comments are increasingly helpful.
      I have a reference to LaMothe's "Tips of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" ISBN: 067232699 though the search page lacks much comment on the books content.
      I really like the Book Information on: "The Zen of Direct3D Game Programming." together with it's disk it looks as if it could be my window into games programming. ISBN: 0761534296
      Larrik my search for "Programming Perl" gets confused with the Pearl Programming language, I got 16 hits the nearest is "Programming Perl 3rd Edition" Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Author: Larry Wall, Jon Orwant & Ton Christiansen - is this the one? ISBN: 0596000278

      Any other suggestions?
      Many thanks again!
      Edward
    • RE: win32 reading material

      Yeah, it s abook about the Perl language, not C++. I was really just pointing out that some programming books can be really funny.

      Make sure you get the newer edition of LaMothe's book. It should be green. If you buy a new edition through Amazon or somethign you should be alright, but if you buy used you may get stuck with the ancient one. Some bookstores still have the ancient one on the shelves, which is why I'm warning you. (The old one was more reddish)
      -Larrik Jaerico

      www.LarrikJ.com
    • RE: win32 reading material

      Not reddish - that's the newer of the two "Tricks of the 3D Programming Gurus" which is all about software 3D rendering. It is also good.

      The older "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" which I have loaned to a friend is silver with a black "window" framing a model of a space fighter toward the top of the front cover.

      "Zen" is a good one because it actually goes into stuff like how to integrate a quake style game console, how to set up a simple scene graph, using DirectInput and DirectSound and a few other tidbits. With the code provided it's only a small step to creating a scene format file so that you can load scenes from disk instead of hardcoding them.

      "Data Structures for Game Programmers" is also good (especially for 2d stuff) because it walks you through creating an Ultima 6 style tile-based game engine and editor.

      I'd look for both of these in their second editions if available because these were both written for DX8.

      Rich
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."
    • Win32 reading material

      Hi Rich & Larrik
      Thanks for the recommendation for 'The Zen of Direct3D' I have it & it appears to be set more to my level of understanding, I have however, fallen at the expected dreaded linking problem.
      I have carefully followed the instructions loading the DirectX 8 SDK, have opened a new VS6 C++ win32 project set its options to the new library directory (default was mssdk) and placed it on top of the list of directories to be searched, I have included the recommended library files to the Project Settings Object/library modules textbox checking the syntax before compiling the project - I get an error message telling me that the library files that I have added for linking cannot be Opened (they appear to have been found), yet if I go to the directory and double click the files they are displayed in an instance of VS C++, could this be a security issue with my OS (WindowsXP Professional)? Or is there something simpler?
      Any suggestions to resolve the problem?
      Thanks,
      Edward
    • Win32 reading material

      Hi anyone!

      Further to my above posting on this string regarding the failure of my win32 project to compile from the book 'The Zen of Direct3D Game programming', I have found that the compiler was unable to determine the entry point of this program and how to set the entry to overcome this problem using Project > Settings > Category Output and have typed 'main' in the Entry-point symbol text box. Against the DirectX 8 library files listing in the Object/library modules text box I have included the path together with the file name. I now have '0 errors, & 0 warnings'

      Problem

      When executing the compiled New Game.exe Windows experiences an undefined problem and displays an Error Report Dialog Box stating 'New Game.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.' giving the opportunity to 'send Error Report' to Microsoft.

      The win32 project is as listed in Chapter 2, the New Game file is as page 69

      // Typical consol Helo World style application
      ///////////////////////////////////////////////
      // Resistance Is Futile!, DOS style

      #include <stdio.h>

      int main()
      {
      // Output the text
      printf( " Resistance Is Futile!" );

      // Return control to the operating system
      return 0;

      }

      Has anyone had this experience? Is there a solution?
      Edward
    • Win32 reading material

      Hi GamerRick
      Many thanks for your comments, I have not worked much with C++ win32 apps before this attempt to try my hand at game programming, I am surprised that there is much difference between an empty win32 application and a consol application.
      This opens another can of worms, what are you using to open your console program? Could be Java?
      Anyway my real problem has been that links to lib files do not function for me. I skipped the above program when I realised that the subsequent programmes did not require DirectX 8 sdk (I have not loaded version 9 because it is not compatible with VS C++ 6) and have worked happily through my copy of "The Zen of Direct3D Game Programming" until we reach the chapter on incorporating a MFC type menu then I find that my "resource.h" built by a wizard and associated with the "resource.rc" file throws the same error message as my DirectX lib files - File cannot be opened - (in WindowsXP this results in a dialogbox to send a report to MS. In my old computer running WindowsNT 4 the error says that "there has been a file sharing violation" but I dont have the file open!) so I have not been able to compile my latest win32 app with menus, why it cant find the file which it built is a mystery? Any suggestions?
      Edward
    • Something to try is opening the sample code and looking at the project settings. This will usually tell you what you need to know to set up a new, empty app from scratch.

      Interestingly enough, MFC and DirectX do work together, but not well. Switching back and forth can be truely frustrating. Best to use the new DXUT functions for creating UI components, even though the danged stuff is still new and incomplete.

      A few more good books:

      Win32 System Programming, 2nd Ed - Johnson M Hart.

      Multithreading Applications in Win32 - Beveridge Wiener.

      Data Structures for Game Programmers - Ron Penton.

      C++ for Game Programmers - Noel Llopis.

      That last is just for good measure, really. Some good stuff in it.

      Anyway, those first two are good because they dig deeper than what is covered in Petzold's book. Read Petzold first, though, because that intro is very useful and will lead you into the other two quite nicely.

      Rich
      "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make some other poor sod die for his."