WELCOME TO IVOR HORTON'S BEGINNING VISUAL C++ 2010. With this book, you can become an effective C++ programmer using Microsoft's latest application-development system. I aim to teach you the C++ programming language, and then how to apply C++ in the development of your own Windows applications. Along the way, you will also learn about many of the exciting new capabilities introduced by this latest version of Visual C++, including how you can make full use of multi-core processors in your programs.
Visual C++ 2010 supports two distinct, but closely related flavors of the C++ language, ISO/IEC standard C++ (which I will refer to as native C++) and C++/CLI. Although native C++ is the language of choice for many professional developers, especially when performance is the primary consideration, the speed and ease of development that C++/CLI and the Windows Forms capability bring to the table make that essential, too. This is why I cover both flavors of C++ in depth in this book.
Visual C++ 2010 fully supports the original ISO/IEC standard C++ language, with the added advantage of some powerful new native C++ language features from the upcoming ISO/IEC standard for C++. This is comprehensively covered in this book, including the new language features.
Visual C++ 2010 also supports C++/CLI, which is a dialect of C++ that was developed by Microsoft as an extension to native C++. The idea behind C++/CLI is to add features to native C++ that allow you to develop applications that target the virtual machine environment supported by.NET. This adds C++ to the other languages such as BASIC and C# that can use the .NET Framework. The C++/CLI language is now an ECMA standard alongside the CLI standard that defines the virtual machine environment for.NET.
The two versions of C++ available with Visual C++ 2010 are complementary and fulfill different roles. ISO/IEC C++ is there for the development of high-performance applications that run natively on your computer, whereas C++/CLI has been developed specifically for writing applications that target the .NET Framework. Once you have learned the essentials of how you write applications in both versions of C++, you will be able to make full use of the versatility and scope of Visual C++ 2010.
With a good understanding of C++, you are well placed to launch into Windows application development. The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) encapsulate the Windows API to provide comprehensive, easy-to-use capabilities for developing high-performance Windows applications in native C++.
You get quite a lot of assistance from automatically generated code when writing native C++ programs, but you still need to write a lot of C++ yourself. You need a solid understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques, as well as a good appreciation of what's involved in programming for Windows. You will learn all that you need using this book.
C++/CLI targets the .NET Framework and is the vehicle for the development of Windows Forms applications. With Windows Forms, you can create much, if not all of the user interface required for an application interactively, without writing a single line of code. Of course, you still must customize a Windows Forms application to make it do what you want, but the time required for development is a fraction of what you would need to create the application using native C++. Even though the amount of customizing code you have to add may be a relatively small proportion of the total, you still need an in-depth knowledge of the C++/CLI language to do it successfully. This book aims to provide you with that.
The Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) is an exciting new capability introduced in Visual C++ 2010 that makes it easy to program for using multiple processors. Programming for multiple processors has been difficult in the past, but the PPL really does make it easy. I'll show you the various ways in which you can use the PPL to speed up your compute-intensive applications.
This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to write C++ applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system using Visual C++ 2010. I make no assumptions about prior knowledge of any particular programming language, so there are no prerequisites other than some aptitude for programming and sufficient enthusiasm and commitment for learning to program in C++ to make it through this book. This tutorial is for you if:
You are a newcomer to programming and sufficiently keen to jump into the deep end with C++. To be successful, you need to have at least a rough idea of how your computer works, including the way in which the memory is organized and how data and instructions are stored.
You have a little experience of programming in some other language, such as BASIC, and you are keen to learn C++ and develop practical Microsoft Windows programming skills.
You have some experience in C or C++, but not in a Microsoft Windows context and want to extend your skills to program for the Windows environment using the latest tools and technologies.
You have some knowledge of C++ and you want to extend your C++ skills to include C++/CLI.
Essentially, this book covers two broad topics: the C++ programming language, and Windows application programming using either MFC or the .NET Framework. Before you can develop fully-fledged Windows applications, you need to have a good level of knowledge of C++, so the C++ tutorial comes first.
The first part of the book teaches you the essentials of C++ programming using both of the C++ language technologies supported by Visual C++ 2010, through a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on both flavors of the C++ language. You'll learn the syntax and use of the native ISO/IEC C++ language and gain experience and confidence in applying it in a practical context through an extensive range of working examples. There are also exercises that you can use to test your knowledge, with solutions available for download if you get stuck. You'll learn C++/CLI as an extension to native C++, again through working examples that illustrate how each language feature works.
Of course, the language tutorial also introduces and demonstrates the use of the C++ standard library facilities you are most likely to need. You'll add to your knowledge of the standard libraries incrementally as you progress through the C++ language. Additionally, you will learn about the powerful tools provided by the Standard Template Library (STL) in both its forms: the native C++ version and the C++/CLI version. There is also a chapter dedicated to the new Parallel Patterns Library that enables you to harness the power of the multi-core processing capabilities of your PC for computationally intensive applications.
Once you are confident in applying C++, you move on to Windows programming. You will learn how to develop native Windows applications using the MFC by creating a substantial working application of more than 2000 lines of code. You develop the application over several chapters, utilizing a broad range of user interface capabilities provided by the MFC. To learn Windows programming with C++/CLI, you develop a Windows Forms application with similar functionality user interface features to the native C++ application.
The book is structured as follows:
Chapter 1 introduces you to the basic concepts you need to understand for programming in C++, for native applications and for .NET Framework applications, together with the main ideas embodied in the Visual C++ 2010 development environment. It describes how you use the capabilities of Visual C++ 2010 for creating the various kinds of C++ applications you learn about in the rest of the book.
Chapters 2 through 9 teach you both versions of the C++ language. The content of each of Chapters 2 through 9 is structured in a similar way; the first part of each chapter deals with native C++ language elements, and the second part deals with how the same capabilities are provided in C++/CLI.
Chapter 10 teaches you how you use the STL, which is a powerful and extensive set of tools for organizing and manipulating data in your native C++ programs. The STL is application-neutral, so you will be able to apply it in a wide range of contexts. Chapter 10 also teaches you the STL/CLR, which is new in Visual C++ 2010. This is a version of the STL for use in C++/CLI applications.
Chapter 11 introduces you to techniques for finding errors in your C++ programs. It covers the general principles of debugging your programs and the basic features that Visual C++ 2010 provides to help you find errors in your code.
Chapter 12 discusses how Microsoft Windows applications are structured and describes and demonstrates the essential elements that are present in every application written for the Windows operating system. The chapter explains elementary examples of how Windows applications work, with programs that use native C++ and the Windows API, native C++ and the MFC, as well as an example of a basic Windows Forms application using C++/CLI.
Chapter 13 introduces how you can program to use multiple processors if your PC has a multi-core processor. You learn about the basic techniques for parallel processing through complete working examples of Windows API applications that are very computationally intensive.
Chapters 14 through 19 teach you Windows programming. You learn to write native C++ Windows applications using the MFC for building a GUI. You will also learn how you use the .NET Framework in a C++/CLI Windows application. You learn how you create and use common controls to build the graphical user interface for your application, and how you handle the events that result from user interaction with your program. In addition to the techniques you learn for building a GUI, the application that you develop also shows you how you handle printing and how you can save your application data on disk.
Chapter 20 teaches you the essentials you need to know for creating your own libraries using MFC. You learn about the different kinds of libraries you can create, and you develop working examples of these that work with the application that you have evolved over the preceding six chapters.
All chapters in the book include numerous working examples that demonstrate the programming techniques discussed. Every chapter concludes with a summary of the key points that were covered, and most chapters include a set of exercises at the end that you can attempt, to apply what you have learned. Solutions to the exercises, together with all the code from the book, are available for download from the publisher's Web site (see the "Source Code" section later in this Introduction for more details). The tutorial on the C++ language uses examples that are console programs, with simple command-line input and output. This approach enables you to learn the various capabilities of C++ without getting bogged down in the complexities of Windows GUI programming. Programming for Windows is really practicable only after you have a thorough understanding of the programming language.
If you want to keep things as simple as possible, or if you are new to programming, you can just learn the native C++ programming language in the first instance. Each of the chapters that cover the C++ language (Chapters 2 through 9) first discuss particular aspects of the capabilities of native C++, and then the new features introduced by C++/CLI in the same context. The reason for organizing things this way is that C++/CLI is defined as an extension to the ISO/IEC standard language, so an understanding of C++/CLI is predicated on knowledge of ISO/IEC C++. Thus, you can just work through the native topics in each of the chapters and ignore the C++/CLI sections that follow. You then can to progress to Windows application development using native C++ without having to keep the two versions of the language in mind. You can return to C++/CLI when you are comfortable with ISO/IEC C++. Of course, if you already have some programming expertise, you can also work straight through and add to your knowledge of both versions of the C++ language incrementally.
To fully use this book, you need a version of Visual C++ 2010 (or Visual Studio 2010) that supports the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC). Note that the free Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition is not sufficient. The Express Edition provides only the C++ compiler and access to the basic Windows API; it does not provide the MFC library. Thus, any fee edition of either Visual C++ 2010 or Visual Studio 2010 will enable you to compile and execute all the examples in the book.
To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what's happening, we've used a number of conventions throughout the book.
As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code manually, or to use the source code files that accompany the book. All the source code used in this book is available for download at http://www.wrox.com. When at the site, simply locate the book's title (use the Search box or one of the title lists) and click the Download Code link on the book's detail page to obtain all the source code for the book. Code that is included on the Web site is highlighted by the following icon:
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