Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++®2008

Chapter 12. Windows Programming Concepts

In this chapter, you take a look at the basic ideas that are involved in every Windows program in C++. You'll first develop a very simple example that uses the Windows operating system API directly. This will enable you to understand how a Windows application works behinds the scenes, which will be useful to you when you are developing applications using the more sophisticated facilities provided by Visual C++ 2008. You then see what you get when you create a Windows program using the Microsoft Foundation Classes, better known as the MFC. Finally, you'll create a basic program using Windows Forms that will execute with the CLR, so by the end of the chapter you'll have an idea of what each of the three approaches to developing a Windows application involves.

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about:

• The basic structure of a window

• The Windows API and how it is used

• Windows messages and how you deal with them

• The notation that is commonly used in Windows programs

• The basic structure of a Windows program

• How you create an elementary program using the Windows API and how it works

• Microsoft Foundation Classes

• The basic elements of an MFC-based program

• Windows Forms

• The basic elements of a Windows Forms application

Windows Programming Basics

With Visual C++ 2008 you have three basic ways of creating an interactive Windows application:

• Using the Windows API. This is the fundamental interface that the Windows operating system provides for communications ...