Viewing Thread:
"Programming Windows Applications"

Hey,
Im learning C++ at the moment - slowly getting my way through it and building console applications that revolve around math rather than helping a user to do something (Other than turning celcius into fahrenheit). I used to program in VB, until I realised it was utterly pointless and I decided to move onto delphi but didn't really get stuck into it, both of these languages enabled me to design applications for windows which I liked and enjoyed doing - but how do I do this with C++? I know there is Visual C++ but that looks a bit too confusing.
Is there any other way?
Thanks,
James

Mode wrote:
> VB did not let me program what I wanted to make which was *really*
> frustrating.

Well what do you want to make? It would certainly be easier to point you in the right direction if we knew what the destination was.

If you want that level of customisation then you have to understand the fundamentals of GUI programming and the APIs. As for VB, what do you mean exactly?

Garin wrote:
> Mode wrote:
> I don't have much time in the evenings to read up on how to program
> because I can't put my mind to it. If I could put my mind to what I
> would like to do I would be fine.
> But I can't, I blame the education system.
>
> Then might I suggest that rather than trying to find a different
> language and/or IDE to make things easier, you try varying how you
> learn instead? (easy said than done I know) I freely admit if I'd
> ever tried to "read up on how to program" I probably would
> have never got started. And all these tutorial books that are
> available, I dont think ever got beyond chapter 2 in most of them. :)
> That kind of learning was just never for me, bored me silly quite
> quickly infact.
> I literally stumbled blindly in the beginning picking things up as I
> went along. I had a project/task and I found what I needed to do it.
> I didn't learn all of the fundamentals until later.

Thats what I did with VB, but I became like a plane on a runway - I could go along the runway but never actually take-off.

VB did not let me program what I wanted to make which was *really* frustrating.

Mode wrote:
> I don't have much time in the evenings to read up on how to program
> because I can't put my mind to it. If I could put my mind to what I
> would like to do I would be fine.
> But I can't, I blame the education system.

Then might I suggest that rather than trying to find a different language and/or IDE to make things easier, you try varying how you learn instead? (easy said than done I know) I freely admit if I'd ever tried to "read up on how to program" I probably would have never got started. And all these tutorial books that are available, I dont think ever got beyond chapter 2 in most of them. :) That kind of learning was just never for me, bored me silly quite quickly infact.
I literally stumbled blindly in the beginning picking things up as I went along. I had a project/task and I found what I needed to do it. I didn't learn all of the fundamentals until later.

Just to add, I don't thing custom GUIs involving DX and OpenGL have any use in a practical Windows environment. Or rather, it's better to learn the Windows API first since 99% of normal applications are built with it. That, or through Java, which is rather sluggish. By normal I mean, not full screen, graphical programs eg. games and simulations.

Socksy don't take anything I say seriously.

Thanks for the pointers.

I really don't understand how this got into a flame war with me randomly light heartedly insulting about no one in particular...

Though I must agree with bonus here, there is a good idea to learn how to do guis without the need of windows api.

I would like also, if you want to go down the game path, I would recommend that you should go for SDL @ www.libsdl.org .

Bare basic programming is understanding the way the language in basics works imo, so rather in documentation copying and pasteing the actual code bit and doing the gui bit, type out the code so you can understand it better.

I would upload the cocoa app yet I lost the binary file in some other user so I can't upload it just yet.

Thanks for the pointers.
I don't have much time in the evenings to read up on how to program because I can't put my mind to it. If I could put my mind to what I would like to do I would be fine.
But I can't, I blame the education system.

Oh, befor eI forget, unless you are actually wanting to write windows applications in the long term, learning most of the windows API, other than the bare basic essentials is useless. Learning to write yours own GUI, using OpenGl or DirectX would be much more useful.

Welcome to the world of finding out what you are actualy aiming for before you start :).

Programming doesn't come quickly or easily, it takes years to figure out how to do simple things, and remeber how to do them. It also takes a good education to be able to do it properly, where you are devoting time to doing things which, for the most part, are pointless for anything other than your coursework needs.

Look at me, I'm about to write a networked game on the PS2, just because I have a module in network game programming. I doubt anyone will want to play my multiplayer space invaders type thing after it's finished, except maybe the guys I go to get a job from when I graduate, hopefully in may.

Anyway, you're not going to get very far programming for windows if you don't already know the basics at least of the language.

www.gametutorials.com has some good C++ tutorials, and some good Windows API tutorials once you've mastered the basics.

After that if you fancy helping me write a hybrid network game engine using unix sockets on the PS2, give me a shout :)