C++ win32 GUI programming, the shortest path? [closed]

Answer 1

Petzold's programming windows if you can find a copy. All the win32 gui stuff is still there underneath MFc/Winforms etc. http://www.charlespetzold.com/pw5/index.html

edit - as somebody mentioned, the win32 api is purely 'C' as are all the examples in Petzold. This doesn't really matter if you are calling them from C++ except that you will have to understand regular C strings.

Answer 2

I guess I learned it the hard way -- entirely through studying VC6's help files. :-) I find VC8's files far less helpful for Win32 programming in general though, because they're riddled with MFC, COM, WinCE, and other things that you can't always filter out.

(I know this answer isn't all that helpful, I'm just saying how I learned.)

Answer 3

Charles Petzolds book is the best.

Programming Windows

Answer 4

You might also want to take a look at the WTL source code.

Answer 5

Here is a list of some online Win32 tutorials and here is a list of links to WIN32 SDK help files.

I personally like the Borland Win32 SDK in Winhelp format (from the link above) as it covers all the basics of Win32 and is easier to search than something like the MSDN.

The MSDN is great once you know what your're doing but I suspect it can be quite confusing to new comers.

Answer 6

theForger's Win32 API Programming Tutorial describes itself as "attempts to get you started developing with the Win32 API as quickly and clearly as possible" and that it's projects and solutions are written for Visual C++. It's also available there as a PDF which is only 108 pages long.