( 5 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 19 2006
Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days was a disappointment. In general the book will give you the basic steps to create the example applications in each chapter. Trying to create an application that is not in the book will very quickly send you looking for other resources. I found more information on the web than I did in this book. The author does a lot of do this, do that instruction with little explanation of the exact reasons for the task. There are numerous errors which requires some creative interpretaion in order to figure out. Overall the book could have been better written to the level of developer it is intended for, and definately could have done with a coursory edit. A good example of what is missing in the book is Chapter 5, Button Contols. The author explains the different buttons and button properties and has you generate a sample application. What is missing in the chapter is how to actually retrieve check box and radio box values to use in other parts of your application. Even the Visual Studio help files are vague on this topic, which may explain the problem with the book. In short I can not recommend this book. It contains too many errors, there is a lot of missing information, and explanations are almost non-existant. A better title would be "An Introduction to Visual C++ 6 in 24 Hours".
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Nov 20 2004
1. those give 3+ didn't really go through the book and try the examples. I used to think it is very good, then go details and found it little use. 2. it let you go around controls, not go up. each hour you know a new control, similar design steps, too simple and uncomplete examples, may be stupidly designed. e.g., to edit treeview you need right click plus left click; after you quite the edition is lost. don't tell you how to use the edit. 3. when it guide you to do sth, not step by step, but jump to top then back, sometime you don't know which relates to what, and you need to dig one key word from messy text lines to know your adding one belongs to which class/object (sometimes author just forget to list it clearly). 4. tend to use long text rather than graph and tables. gives pages on font and their naming, font creation, yet no graph to show the font type. often mentioned "windows 95" with no meaning. put if..else etc. in later and no related chpaters, if it is really needed it shall be in 1st hour. 5. repeatedly mention on similar things rather than give clear, real usage of controls. Never tell you resize window, give too simple drawing functions. Tend to list most controls rather than use their key features. Author seems doesn't know which parts in VC++ are most important and useful for applications. 6. It gives you some info on VC++ controls, and do right in Hungarian namings. I suggest you just try the button/menu item/dialog box examples, than go other books.
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Feb 15 2004
Chapters 4 and up would be a good review for those very familiar with MFC and Visual C++ programming. For the beginners - good luck and think about the great dinner you could have had w/the money you just wasted...
