So where does a newbie go from here
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I am a newbie to the codeing world. I've been learning standard C++ for the past year and now want to start learning more OS specific tasks, ideally Windows. However, the problem I'm having as a newbie is what should I start learning next (mfc, win32 api, atl, com, c#, .net, etc)? How does one decide? I feel like with all the new technology, I'll never be able to catch up. So if you were just starting out, in what coding direction would you head? Thanks for your comments. Eri
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I am a newbie to the codeing world. I've been learning standard C++ for the past year and now want to start learning more OS specific tasks, ideally Windows. However, the problem I'm having as a newbie is what should I start learning next (mfc, win32 api, atl, com, c#, .net, etc)? How does one decide? I feel like with all the new technology, I'll never be able to catch up. So if you were just starting out, in what coding direction would you head? Thanks for your comments. Eri
That's a really good question. There certainly are a ton of options right now. Easy answer is learn everything, but as the variety of options seems to be expanding rapidly that's probably not very practical. I suppose the real question is what do you want to do? Do you want a killer job writing device drivers? or do you want to write web-apps? You mention OS specific stuff, that can cover a lot of ground too. Which way do you want to head
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That's a really good question. There certainly are a ton of options right now. Easy answer is learn everything, but as the variety of options seems to be expanding rapidly that's probably not very practical. I suppose the real question is what do you want to do? Do you want a killer job writing device drivers? or do you want to write web-apps? You mention OS specific stuff, that can cover a lot of ground too. Which way do you want to head
re: What do you want to do? Well, I've been in the sw business for 10 years working as a product manager. I've come to realize that codeing has helped me, from a technical perspective, in better understanding the products I put out on the market. While I don't belive I will ever seek a job as a professional developer, I do want to learn and implement the technologies myself. Who knows, I do enjoy actually learning how you folks create these apps. With that said, I think I want to build windows and web apps. However, I think I want to concentrate on technology that sort of bridges both Win and web apps. This might be something like ATL and COM, not sure. Can you build win apps with ATL? Part of the problem is I just don't have a good understanding of the what is the difference between the various technologies and when one is used vs. another. I've thought about learning MFC but with the .NET strategy just comming into existance, I'm not sure where MFC fits into this strategy(even though MFC will be around for awhile). In addition, MFC seems to have a high learning curve. Don't really want to learn something that may be perceived as somewhat out of date, even though it's not. Sorry for the rambling, but this is the problem I'm having. Just don't really know which way to turn
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re: What do you want to do? Well, I've been in the sw business for 10 years working as a product manager. I've come to realize that codeing has helped me, from a technical perspective, in better understanding the products I put out on the market. While I don't belive I will ever seek a job as a professional developer, I do want to learn and implement the technologies myself. Who knows, I do enjoy actually learning how you folks create these apps. With that said, I think I want to build windows and web apps. However, I think I want to concentrate on technology that sort of bridges both Win and web apps. This might be something like ATL and COM, not sure. Can you build win apps with ATL? Part of the problem is I just don't have a good understanding of the what is the difference between the various technologies and when one is used vs. another. I've thought about learning MFC but with the .NET strategy just comming into existance, I'm not sure where MFC fits into this strategy(even though MFC will be around for awhile). In addition, MFC seems to have a high learning curve. Don't really want to learn something that may be perceived as somewhat out of date, even though it's not. Sorry for the rambling, but this is the problem I'm having. Just don't really know which way to turn
To answer your question about building Windows apps with with ATL, the answer is YES. You can use the WTL, which means (drum roll) Windows Template Library. I personally know little more than the acronym, but there are samples on this website to get you started. In my humble opinion, if you want to start learning technologies that span Windows and Web, I'd start learning XML and XSL. XML has been hailed by numerous sources (including Microsoft) as being the next BIG technology, because it's not platform specific; I can write an XML file on a Windows platform, send it to a Mac, and the Mac will be able to read the file (assuming that the user has installed an XML parser). If you haven't seen it before, XML looks similar to HTML. The difference being that HTML defines how data should look, and XML defines data
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I am a newbie to the codeing world. I've been learning standard C++ for the past year and now want to start learning more OS specific tasks, ideally Windows. However, the problem I'm having as a newbie is what should I start learning next (mfc, win32 api, atl, com, c#, .net, etc)? How does one decide? I feel like with all the new technology, I'll never be able to catch up. So if you were just starting out, in what coding direction would you head? Thanks for your comments. Eri
My advice is always this: Learn, in this order: 1) C/C++ 2) The OS API (DOS, Windows, Unix, whatever it is) 3) Class Frameworks that use that API Without a solid understanding of how the framework is doing it's job, you can't be an effective developer. More importantly, when you need to do something that the framework doesn't do for you, you aren't completely lost. Whether to use MFC, WTL, ATL, etc.. is a different sort of decision. WTL/ATL (they are really similar technologies, and complement each other well) will require much more OS knowledge than MFC does. But going to MFC from WTL/ATL probably won't be that difficult. Going to WTL/ATL from MFC without any OS background is likely to be an exercise in hair removal. What it boils down to is this, what do you plan on using? learn whatever you feel you need to be competitive.
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re: What do you want to do? Well, I've been in the sw business for 10 years working as a product manager. I've come to realize that codeing has helped me, from a technical perspective, in better understanding the products I put out on the market. While I don't belive I will ever seek a job as a professional developer, I do want to learn and implement the technologies myself. Who knows, I do enjoy actually learning how you folks create these apps. With that said, I think I want to build windows and web apps. However, I think I want to concentrate on technology that sort of bridges both Win and web apps. This might be something like ATL and COM, not sure. Can you build win apps with ATL? Part of the problem is I just don't have a good understanding of the what is the difference between the various technologies and when one is used vs. another. I've thought about learning MFC but with the .NET strategy just comming into existance, I'm not sure where MFC fits into this strategy(even though MFC will be around for awhile). In addition, MFC seems to have a high learning curve. Don't really want to learn something that may be perceived as somewhat out of date, even though it's not. Sorry for the rambling, but this is the problem I'm having. Just don't really know which way to turn
I disagree about MFC having a high learning curve - I would suggest it makes it easier to learn how to program Windows. My suggestion is learn MFC, THEN once you know how to build Windows apps, start to learn how to use the Win32 stuff that MFC encapsulates. As you say, these things will be with us for a long time, and will give you a 'handle' on how Windows itself works, and what sort of objects you are dealing with. Then you can get your teeth into ATL/COM, and (heaven forbid ) .NET if you want to. This seems to me the easiest learning curve, although I accept that might just be because that's how _I_ did it. MFC is a set of classes that encapsulate Win32, and make it easier to treat things like bitmaps as objects. It also has classes that you can use to access the Web. Depending on your level of expertise, I'd recommend buying a book like either Visual C++ in 24 Hours ( if you want to start from real basics ), or MFC Unleashed ( if you want the full treatment ). The latter book has chapters covering web access and COM, and is in my mind the best reference on MFC apart from the MSDN library. And of course sites like this have message boards full of people willing to answer your questions. Good luck - it's a hell of a lot of fun, you just might find the urge to throw your day job away ( like I just did a few months ago )
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I am a newbie to the codeing world. I've been learning standard C++ for the past year and now want to start learning more OS specific tasks, ideally Windows. However, the problem I'm having as a newbie is what should I start learning next (mfc, win32 api, atl, com, c#, .net, etc)? How does one decide? I feel like with all the new technology, I'll never be able to catch up. So if you were just starting out, in what coding direction would you head? Thanks for your comments. Eri
Back in '93 I was given the Windows 3.1 SDK. I had to develop a terminal emulator. I knew little 'C' (about 6 months experience), and absolutely no Windows programming at all. I picked up one of the SDK manuals out of the 22 and looked in dismay at the thousands of functions. I thought how the hell I'm I every going to learn this. Charles Petzold saved my sorry ass, I read his book about 20 times. Then started off on my first Windows program. A year later MFC and C++ were the buzzwords and I spent 8 months getting my head round MFC. Believe me it paid off. With all the technologies, SDKs and buzzwords, a newbie to the Windows enviroment can feel rather daunted with the fact that what does he or she learn. If I was in your position I would learn C#. By learning C# now you well be ahead by next year. But the key thing is keep at it. Persistence make a good programmer.