MFC

What are MFC exactly, is this more Microsoft made classes to help with c++
eg windows form environemnt with controls like VB?

I am getting to like C++ but these C++ add-ons like MFC are confusing me.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 16:43:39 +1100, "john townsley"
<johntownsley@optusnet.com.au> wrote in comp.lang.c++:

> What are MFC exactly, is this more Microsoft made classes to help with c++
> eg windows form environemnt with controls like VB?
>
> I am getting to like C++ but these C++ add-ons like MFC are confusing me.

They are just what you think, third-party extensions that are not a
part of the standard C++ language.  Microsoft has their own support
groups in the news:microsoft.public.* family for them.  Since they are
not part of the C++ language itself, they are not discussed here.

--
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
FAQs for
comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~.../FAQ-acllc.html

john townsley wrote:
> What are MFC exactly, is this more Microsoft made classes to help
with c++
> eg windows form environemnt with controls like VB?
>
> I am getting to like C++ but these C++ add-ons like MFC are confusing
me.

MFC (Microsoft foundation classes) contains a hierarchy of classes.
This encapsulates the user interface portion of the windows API and
makes the creation of windows application fairly simple in object
oriented way. It reduces the amount of code written to create a windows
program to a large extend. It is also very efficient.
It also provides all the advantages normally found in c++.
But its of no use when u are using a different platform than Windows
Only heplful when developing windows application

So if I wanted to do some game programming with C++  and openGL/directx do I
need to know MFC /VCL  . Can I just know C++ and bypass these extras


"Jack Klein" <jackklein@spamcop.net> wrote in message
 news:socns0th91un11vb8kl26ud5tb8dmo60g1@
4ax.com...
> On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 16:43:39 +1100, "john townsley"
> <johntownsley@optusnet.com.au> wrote in comp.lang.c++:
> 
>
> They are just what you think, third-party extensions that are not a
> part of the standard C++ language.  Microsoft has their own support
> groups in the news:microsoft.public.* family for them.  Since they are
> not part of the C++ language itself, they are not discussed here.
>
> --
> Jack Klein
> Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
> FAQs for
> comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
> comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
> alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++
> http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~.../FAQ-acllc.html

Is this similar to having Visual basic environment, MFC provides this
support



"Sagar Choudhary" <sagar.choudhary@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1103869335.822016.167730@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
> john townsley wrote: 
> with c++ 
> me.
>
> MFC (Microsoft foundation classes) contains a hierarchy of classes.
> This encapsulates the user interface portion of the windows API and
> makes the creation of windows application fairly simple in object
> oriented way. It reduces the amount of code written to create a windows
> program to a large extend. It is also very efficient.
> It also provides all the advantages normally found in c++.
> But its of no use when u are using a different platform than Windows
> Only heplful when developing windows application
>

john townsley wrote:
> Is this similar to having Visual basic environment, MFC provides this

> support
>
Visual basic more simpler than using MFC. In VB evrything is visible to
you
and by just clicking you can extend your GUI but using MFC you have to
know the classes for doing that.
Most of the windows applications uses several standard user controls
like
text labels,push buttons,combo boxes, check boxes, scroll bars etc..
You can create these in code using MFCs

john townsley wrote:
> What are MFC exactly, is this more Microsoft made classes to help
with c++
> eg windows form environemnt with controls like VB?
>
> I am getting to like C++ but these C++ add-ons like MFC are confusing
me.

MFC (Microsoft foundation classes) contains a hierarchy of classes.
This encapsulates the user interface portion of the windows API and
makes the creation of windows application fairly simple in object
oriented way. It reduces the amount of code written to create a windows
program to a large extend. It is also very efficient.
It also provides all the advantages normally found in c++.
But its of no use when u are using a different platform than Windows
Only heplful when developing windows application

john townsley wrote:

> So if I wanted to do some game programming with C++  and openGL/directx do
I
> need to know MFC /VCL  . Can I just know C++ and bypass these extras

If you have to ask how to write games, you are not ready to.

Game programming is very hard. Normal programs are 2-dimensional, and only
use limited animation. Games are 3D and animated, so they are a couple
orders of magnitude more complex than business applications.

MFC is flat, and will give you nothing towards games.

To deal with their complexity, game projects come in several layers - the
art formats, the rendering layer, the gameplay engine, and the scripting
layer. Each of these could be in a different language, each uses different
libraries, and each uses different support tools.

Your best bet is to buy a game, such as Quake or Warcraft, that comes with a
"level editor". That means the game shop productized and sold the tools
which their gameplay designers used to architect the game's floorplan,
monsters, and triggers. Paying a little to enter gaming at the top will be
more fun than starting with raw C++ and OpenGL and entering at the bottom.

Your second best bet is to download an open source game engine, from
http://sf.net . Go with whatever language and library you can manage to
install and use to get such a project working. After that, learning the
language and libraries will be relatively easy.

--
Phlip
http://industrialxp.org/community/b...tUserInterfaces

"john townsley" <johntownsley@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message news:41cbb654$0$1082$afc38c
87@news.optusnet.com.au...
> "Jack Klein" <jackklein@spamcop.net> wrote in message
>  news:socns0th91un11vb8kl26ud5tb8dmo60g1@
4ax.com... 
>
>
> So if I wanted to do some game programming with C++  and openGL/directx do
 I
> need to know MFC /VCL  . Can I just know C++ and bypass these extras

Please don't top-post (I've rearranged your post)

I don't know if it's still in print, but look for "Building a 3D Game
Engine in C++"  by Brian Hook  (Wiley) (ISBN 0-471-12326-9)

$48.95 CDN, $34.95 USA when I bought it in 1995

-Alan

john townsley wrote:

> So if I wanted to do some game programming with C++  and openGL/directx do
 I
> need to know MFC /VCL  . Can I just know C++ and bypass these extras


If you want to do Windows programming, better learn .NET and not MFC,
Win32 and the other old stuff. MFC was just an object oriented API
encapsulating Win32 API.


.NET is the thing of today, and the latest DirectX (9.0) is a managed
one, that is it is .NET.


The latest Microsoft C++ compiler supporting .NET is 2003 (aka 7.1).


A good book to learn how to use .NET with C++ is


"Visual C++ .NET How To Program" by Deitel.

http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/aca...4373774,00.html


It is very good, it covers even multithreading.



However if you can wait, I suggest you wait for VC++ 2005 and the new
C++/CLI standard.




--
Ioannis Vranos

http://www23.brinkster.com/noicys