hervens48

Hello everyone, im posting this cause im havign some doubts of what i should do next.
I started to learn c++ in the hope of programming my own video game someday. (something like doom)
So yeah, i decided to take baby steps. My first book was c++ for dummies, then i read sams teach yourself c++ in 21 days. Those 2 books made me a console programming expert i guess. But now im not sure what to do next.

What book or website will teach me how to make a windows program?.
What book or website will teach me how to program in direct x?
quick questions
Is direct x a programming language, or an extension to c++?
Do all compilers support direct x?
i use the visual c++ 2005 express edition compiler, and dev c++
I would be very gratefull if u guys could suggest a book or link that will teach me direct x(how to make my own halo) or that will teach me ro program a windows program(like my own microsoft word)
Thx in advance fellow programmers

Booooze

It's not a language or an extension. It's a library. You import the library and use it to create whatever. The library is just code that's already been written so you don't have to do it yourself.

If your looking for tutorials, I can't tell you much as I don't use C++, but I've touched on it before, and the only website I can think of is www.gametutorials.com . They have some ok stuff.

But honestly, since you are asking these questions, I feel quite sure that you are not ready for DX. A lot of people make this mistake. Consider doing some simple windows programming first. Then try a simple 2D game. Then look at DirectX. It's going to scare you no doubt.

DaWei

I'm thinking, NOT!!! Nice to see a huge ego in someone other than my girlfriend, though.

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Booooze

Agreed. but I didn't say that :p Like I said, If he's asking these kinds of questions, then he is no expert.

Jessehk

I have been told that you will always learn something new about C++, regardless of how long you've been programming in it. I can definitely vouch for that.

An excellent reference site for all things C++: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/ .
I go there when I want a quick syntactic reference or best practices when it comes topics such as pointers or references.

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Jimbo

also check out http://www.gamedev.net for some game oriented things

ReggaetonKing

Look into purchasing books on C++ programming with DirectX and Visual C++ programming. Also http://www.objectcentral.com/ has some a free library for a GUI for C++. C++ is a great language. Just learning to console program in C++ and reading 2 books are going to make you a C++ king! I suggest "The C++ Programming Language". That book will get you in the right direction. You want to be strong in C++ before using GUI librabies and Frameworks in your C++ programs. It wont take no 21 days/one week or w/e *Sam* like to try to push onto people.

Making a "Halo" or "Microsoft Word" like take years of experience and program solving in C++ or in another other language. Take your time though and don't except to wake up today and know how to develop these things!

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hervens48

Thx everyone, i checked out all this links that u guys gave me. And anyways, why didnt anyone tell me that win32 is windows programming?
Its funny cause i basically searched the whole library, and the book store hoping to find a book called *windows programming*, but there was like so many of em with the keyword win32 in their title name, but i never knew that was windows programming. lol.
That proves my french teacher was right when she said ignoring the meaning of one word can change the meaning of the whole sentence

lectricpharaoh

The correct term is hubris. You'll occasionally see posts from new people that comment on the categories like 'Professional Programmer' and 'Programming Guru' titles you see beneath the names of some of the more knowledgeable members here, and then these members will explain that they do not think of themselves that way, and that it the forum automatically applies those titles on the basis of post count. Still, many of these members are rather knowledgeable, certainly more so than you or I, and if they are not claiming to be experts, I really don't think you're qualified. It may have been more accurate to say that you feel comfortable with console-mode stuff, and would like to start learning how to write GUI programs under Windows (and would not have drawn negative comments from other posters).

DirectX is an API (application programming interface). It is not specific to any language, though the structure does lend itself to being more easily used from C or C++ code than from languages like Visual Basic. It's also Windows-specific, and has nothing directly to do with C/C++. In fact, you'll find that many of the things you see in real-world programs (sounds and graphics, in particular) have no place in standard C or C++. Instead, such capabilities are provided through libraries specific to the OS (and often compiler) in question.

If you want to get into GUI programming, a good tutorial to start with can be found here. Before you try that tutorial, be sure you understand all the basics, including pointers. If you need to ask what a function pointer is, go back to those books you bought. Once you have the basic GUI stuff down, start playing around with some of the other Win32 API functions. Go to MSDN, and spend some time reading up on the API, and experiment with some of the functions, and don't restrict yourself to just the GUI stuff. Windows is much more than that, and there are a lot of useful API functions that have nothing to do with sounds or graphics.
They probably didn't tell you that it was 'Windows programming' because they figured it was self-evident. I mean, what did you think it was? I don't mean to sound insulting, but it seems pretty obvious that 'Win', used in the context of computers, is very likely a reference to 'Windows'. Also, since old versions (such as Windows 3.1) were 16-bit, and more recent versions (Win95 and later, as well as everything in the WinNT family) are 32-bit, the expressions 'Win16' and 'Win32' would seem to indicate 16-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows, respectively (and in fact do).

When people refer to Win32, they are usually talking about a relatively recent version of Windows for desktop PCs, but they may also be referring to other, lesser-known versions, such as WinCE (used on embedded devices like PDAs and smartphones, though it is often then referred to as 'Windows Mobile'). In the context of programming, it usually refers to the Win32 API, which is a set of functions, data objects, and other things used to request services from the operating system (such as writing to a file, or creating a window).

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andro

I can prove she was right quite easily. Ignore the word surrounded by asteriks in the following sentence:

You are *not* an idiot.