Win32 & C++ Books

[Rajesh]

I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities) in VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++ (as it is a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete Reference. I think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it comes to Win32 most books I have seen does not explain anything on the structuures or types being used.

For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);

Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types? Should I learn more of C++ itself? Any recommendations.

Thanks,

Rajesh Abraham

[Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]]

Rajesh wrote:

I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities)
in VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++
(as it is a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete
Reference. I think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it
comes to Win32 most books I have seen does not explain anything on
the structuures or types being used.

For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);
Generally you'll need to look up these types in the Win32 documentation. In
this case, LPPROFILEINFO is a pointer to a PROFILEINFO, which is a struct,
defined in <userenv.h> like this:

typedef struct _PROFILEINFO {
DWORD dwSize;
DWORD dwFlags;
LPTSTR lpUserName;
LPTSTR lpProfilePath;
LPTSTR lpDefaultPath;
LPTSTR lpServerName;
LPTSTR lpPolicyPath;
HANDLE hProfile;
} PROFILEINFO, *LPPROFILEINFO;


Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types?
"Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows", Jeffrey Richter, MS Press,
ISBN 1572319968
Should I learn more of C++ itself?

Yes, of course :)

-cd

[January Smith]

I find myself in a similar situation, I read Visual C++ .NET Step by Step,
but still have a difficult time understanding some of the C++ reference
materials. I have started reading the book Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days by
Jesse Liberty and I am finding that it fills in some of the gaps in my
knowledge.

Regards,
January

"Rajesh" <an*******@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AF**********************************@microsof t.com...

I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities) in VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++ (as it is
a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete Reference. I
think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it comes to Win32 most
books I have seen does not explain anything on the structuures or types
being used.
For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);

Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types? Should I learn more of C++ itself? Any recommendations.
Thanks,

Rajesh Abraham

[Sin]

> I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities) in
VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++ (as it is
a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete Reference. I
think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it comes to Win32 most
books I have seen does not explain anything on the structuures or types
being used.

For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);

Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types? Should I learn more

of C++ itself? Any recommendations.
MSDN has all that info... Ok so MSDN is a pain to browse, but you'll
learn...

As for LPPROFILEINFO, the API is very consistant... I have no idea what it
is, but I can tell you the LP prefix means it's a pointer... The call being
win32, I can tell you it's a pointer to a structure called PROFILEINFO...
Just look it up in MSDN and you'll find a description of it's use, members,
description of each, exceptions, limitations, etc....

I personnally think reading books is a waste of time. You have to wade
through so much useless info and repetition and you usually loose track of
the important information. For me the net is a big knowledge base, and
there's nothing like example to learn (good and bad ones).

BTW C++ is NOT a prerequisite to the Win32 API... Plain C is just as good,
if not better. And you can do alot from VB itself too, without learning
C/C++...

Alex.

[nn]

"The C++ Programming Language "
by Bjarne Stroustrup

-----Original Message-----
Rajesh wrote:

I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities) in VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++ (as it is a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete Reference. I think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it comes to Win32 most books I have seen does not explain anything on the structuures or types being used.

For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);
Generally you'll need to look up these types in the Win32

documentation. Inthis case, LPPROFILEINFO is a pointer to a PROFILEINFO, which is a struct,defined in <userenv.h> like this:

typedef struct _PROFILEINFO {
DWORD dwSize;
DWORD dwFlags;
LPTSTR lpUserName;
LPTSTR lpProfilePath;
LPTSTR lpDefaultPath;
LPTSTR lpServerName;
LPTSTR lpPolicyPath;
HANDLE hProfile;
} PROFILEINFO, *LPPROFILEINFO;

Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types?
"Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows", Jeffrey

Richter, MS Press,ISBN 1572319968

Should I learn more of C++ itself?

Yes, of course :)

-cd
.

[Alek Davis]

Rajesh,

It is very commendable that you are trying to learn C/C++, even though
development is not your primary job (there are quite a few system admins
around who are staying astray from programming, which - I think - robs them
from useful knowledge). With respect to Win32 programming, C++ is not going
to help you much, because Win32 is mostly C code with Microsoft flavor, and
this Microsoft flavor can be quite confusing for newcomers. Eventually, you
get used to it. In the meantime, just do a search on Google or Google
Newsgroups and there is a high chance you will find some info, if not
directly related, but maybe pointing to something more relevant. There are
some bits of info, which will come to you with more experience. Like knowing
that LP in the beginning of structure names means "long pointer", which is
basically a pointer, so there is not much chance for you to find a lot of
info about LPPROFILEINFO, but you can see the description of PROFILEINFO (in
fact, MSDN description will show you that LPPROFILEINFO is just an alias
for PROFILEINFO*). There is a lot of stuff like this, such as using
Hungarian notation in the function prototypes, which may also be confusing,
but it should not to get you long to get used to it.

Alek

"Rajesh" <an*******@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AF**********************************@microsof t.com...

I am a System Administrator and do some programming (Admin Utlities) in VB6 & C#.net. I am interested in Win32 and thought of learning C++ (as it is
a pre-requsite) and read 13 chapters from C++.Net Complete Reference. I
think I can now follow a normal C++ program but when it comes to Win32 most
books I have seen does not explain anything on the structuures or types
being used.
For Eg what type is LPPROFILEINFO in the below eg.

BOOL LoadUserProfile(
HANDLE hToken,
LPPROFILEINFO lpProfileInfo
);

Any books that will teach Win32 starting from types? Should I learn more of C++ itself? Any recommendations.
Thanks,

Rajesh Abraham

[Rajesh]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I now have a better idea on which path i should take.
Thanks,

Rajesh Abraham Chacko