Book/reference recommendation

[knob]

Having just started working at a new institution, I've come to learn that one of the main applications I'm developing on is comprised heavily of MFC (C++).

I've got roughly 6 years experience in C++, and none of that with MFC.... which, unfortunately, leaves me with a bit less of a knowledge base than I'd like.

I'm hopeful that someone could point out to me a (preferably recently printed) reference that (in your opinion) gives a good covering of MFC 8.0 (VS 2005), so I could pick that up and get up to speed with the conventions and classes of MFC.

I'd be very appreciative!

 

[mikeblas]

I wrote several books on MFC, though they were last updated for VS 2000.

 

[knob]

Yeah, a lot of the books I've seen tend to be older on MFC... which brings me to a question:

With respect to MFC, does the relative age of the text matter? (That is, has MFC changed enough to deprecate the older books?) Perhaps any reference is better than none.

 

[mikeblas]

I think that any reference is obviously better than none, as long as you know that when the terrain and the map differ you should trust the terrain.

MFC hasn't changed significantly since last book I wrote. "Significantly", to me and here, means in architecture and implementation. In practice, "Significantly" means "what I'm using and how it works". The string class implementation has changed, as have a few control implementations. I think far more importantly, there are new things (rather than changed things) that MFC has supported in the evolving platform of Windows.

 

[knob]

With you all the way.

What's the name of your book? Thanks for the hand, mikeblas.

 

[mikeblas]

The most recent edition of my book is Professional MFC With Visual C++ 6. It's out of print, but it isn't hard to find in the used market. There's four editions, so make sure you're getting the VC++ 6 one. The VC++ 5 edition is also around, and is cheaper in the used market.

If you don't like my book, for whatever reason, you might try Programming Windows with MFC by Jeff Prosise. If you're an experienced programmer and just want to understand what makes MFC work and then work your way outwards, you probably should start with MFC Internals by Wingo and Shepherd.

There aren't too many people writing books for MFC these days, so I think you'll actually find books written for any newer versions. Rumor has it that Microsoft is trying to get MFC compatible with managed C++, so I guess that will be the biggest significant change. I haven't installed the newest version of Visual C++ yet, but I've not heard much about upgrades to MFC at all.

 

[knob]

Many thanks - just picked up a copy of your VC++ 6 book for <$20 shipped

 

[mikeblas]

Swell. I hope you enjoy it