[ale] OT: Win32 Programming

[cfowler at outpostsentinel.com (Christopher Fowler)]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2003 at 04:29:54PM -0600, Joe Knapka wrote:
> Chris, much to my dismay, I have done quite a bit of Win32
> programming, including services. I wouldn't call myself a Win32 API
> expert (nor do I aspire to that title :0) -- I must very frequently
> refer to the documentation. In my experience, the MSDN Library
> provides adequate documentation for any conceivable programming task
> using the Win32 API. If you've got access to the MSDN Library CDs,
> install it and use it. It fufills your requirement ("assumes the user
> knows all that stuff"), unless you explicitly go looking for the
> baby-step stuff about using the IDE, C++, etc.
> 
> I really hate writing Win32 code, but I will give M$ credit for the
> quality of their documentation (with a few exceptions here and there).
> The only real problem with the MSDN documentation is that there's just
> so damned much of it - finding what you're looking for can be a bit
> daunting. But the "Index" tab is your friend.
> 
> Of course, if you're using Cygwin or something, that's not going to be
> useful advice.

Thanks,

I've made much progress in my writing of the Win32 stuff.  I've done
VC++ stuff in the past but in this project I'm using much of the 
Win32 specific stuff to create a program that will run as a service.

I'm using the book "Win32 Services" which can be found on
http://safari.oreilly.com.  I've got my service pretty much 
complete as proof of concept code.  I plan on a total rewrite 
and clean up of the code that I've written.  I know all the normal
C stuff, I was just looking for a book that would tell me how to
do things in Win32 like WriteFile(), ReadFile(), etc..

I'm thinking of switching from VC .NET to maybe Bordland IDE.

Chris