[.ca] Visual C++6 For Dummies (ISBN 0764503723)

hope hes NOT a comedian at night:
Ok. i know its called "for dummies".... and i dint really consider myself one, until i dropped $29.99, but, i looked at the first few chapters, and it look OK.... I thought id get much more "Windows programming" out of it i got a bit tired of : "see me feel me touch me print me..." "smooth operator" "holy debugger batman, it works... etc... A bit to bubble-gummy for me AND, as was mentioned before: What About Windows ???? ... id didn't buy it Strickly for c++, it said "VISUAL c++"... maybe if it had been called "Visual c++ console apps", (which is what it is) i would have (should have), left it on the shelf.. maybe its my fault... i guess when i think visual c++, i think sdi, and mdi classes...OH... maybe i am a dummy, after all I was NOT amused, nor very happy...

Visual C++ 6 For Dummies:
I bought this book with the notion of learning Visual C++ 6.0 in my spare time. I was very disappointed. There are a lot of examples but some did not compile. I worked every example in the book but I do not see how some of these examples fit into the big picture. The book may have been better if the author had chosen 1 specific example and then built upon that example to give you a real-world application. The examples in each chapter had nothing to do with the examples in the chapters before it. The author just shows you several different ways to accomplice the same thing.

Though cliche, it's for dummies:
Even though it's cliche by saying a dummies book IS for dummies, I have to say this is the first book where I've felt that way. I read this cover to cover, and I found it to be useless. The first 9 chapters are essentially the only portion of the book that explains Visual C++ 6. If that isn't odd, this is: The first 9 chapters explain almost no programming--they explain the wizards that you can find in C++ compilers. They aren't teaching you anything, that I could find, and the programming they do mention is dove into suddenly, and they don't even tell you what the programming means. If you want to "learn" Visual C++ 6, I recommend a different book, unless you want your programming career to come directly from a Microsoft of Borland wizard.

Good, but not great.....:
This book is pretty good on C++ syntax, but doesn't do much on actually getting into the MFC and Windows programming side of things. I would highly recommend Sam's Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6.0 for learning the basics of MFC programming.

Buy something else:
This is undoubtedly the worst C++ book I have seen. It spends so much time being cute and funny (well TRYING to be funny) that it fails to teach the material. It is broken up into many little incomprehensible parts. Each part has a name that does not tell what it is about because the authors are trying to use silly little puns for titles. Nor does the order of the parts contribute to learning anything. After reading this (well trying to read it) I was more confused than when I started. Stay away from this one at all costs. A better choice is Beginning Visual C++ 6 by Ivor Horton.