Question:
I have taken two semesters of C++ and feel pretty confident about the whole OOP aspect of things. I have a good understanding of all the fundamentals of C++. All the coding we did was for DOS or Windows console apps though, and now I want to learn to do some Windows 95 programming. What is a good way to learn the Windows 95 classes and get started making windowed programs that behave like any other windowed program? (I could really use a small program written for both DOS and Windows to compare them. I think that would help a lot.)

Answer:
Moving to Windows programming can be a big jump.

I’m glad to hear that you’ve got C++ and OOP under your belt. It will be helpful if you follow my recommendation. Unfortunately, I really can’t just give you a Windows program to show you how it’s done. The Windows interface contains thousands of system calls and the whole thing can seem quite twisted to someone coming from DOS.

Not to discourage you, however. Your best bet is to pick up some good Windows application classes. The one I use is MFC, which comes with Microsoft Visual C++. Borland has OWL.

Using these libraries, a lot of the details will be handled for you, and you’ll be up and running much faster than just by starting from scratch. In addition, you will be able to apply your C++ and OOP knowledge directly to those classes. You’ll still have plenty to learn, but this is the quickest path to your first Windows application.