# re: Another short night

Jason,

I think it all depends on what you really want to get out of your C++ learning experience as to what types of books to get to "backfill" knowledge. I "feel your pain" to a degree, particuarly around learning C++ as I embarked on that path several years ago as well, probably for the same unmentioned reasons you did :-) I hope I'm not insulting your level of experience with C++ in the recommendations I'm about to give, and if I do, my sincerest apologies.

I have a copy of Thinking in C++ Vol I (actually i originally printed the book from his website), but after a slight mishap in binding the over 300+ page doc, I settled with buying a paperback copy. Quite frankly, the book bored me to tears. But I think it was mainly because I wanted C++ in my toolbox NOW, not later (patience, young Skywalker). If you're looking at shapening your skills with ATL, I'd recommend you get Begining ATL COM by Wrox Press and ATL Internals by Brent Rector and Chris Sells. And there's always the COM "bible", Effective COM, by Don Box.

If MFC is your cup of tea, then I'd suggest you get copy of Introduction to MFC Programming with Visual C++ by Richard Jones. The book serves as a fairly good reference into MFC programming and has some decent examples/exercises to give you a good foundation.

Now if you want a more "broader" and "generic" (ANSI) C++ background, I'd suggest you look into Effective C++ and More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers (a C++ Guru and well known and respected in the industry)

Hope this helps. Good luck on your journey.

# re: Another short night

Lamont: Thanks for the heads up, I'll make sure I go and browse the books you mentioned before I order anything off of Amazon. You bring up a good question about what I want to do with C++, I don't know if I know enough to even know which path to take right now. I have looked a little into ATL, which looks interesting to me, but I think MFC is interesting too. So much to learn, so little time.

# re: Another short night

Tell me about it :-(

I started into C++ with ATL. Actually "forced" to because of project requirements at the time. But I have always been intrigued by MFC, primarily because a lion share of commercial software that ships for Windows is written in MFC and it doesnt seem like it's going away and it generally seems like a "fun" framework to work with. However, unless you work for a product company it seems, learning MFC is a waste of time, especially with many enterprises are gravitating towards the web and the fact that MFC doesn't necessarily promote the RAD nature of development expected in the enterprise (as VB6, VB.NET, and C# currently give you).

I've wrestled with trying to resume my MFC self-teaching, but with .NET coupled with the fact that I'm not developing "shrink wrapped" software, it seems like overkill or some sort "misdirection" in learning goals.

# re: Another short night

Lamont: I agree with you. It seems teaching myself C++ for the fun of it in my personal time (won't ever get to use it at my current position at work) is going to require me to focus on what I really want to do with it. At this point I'm not to sure but I think I'll go with ATL first and then maybe MFC unless for some reason I find that I need to change direction (or maybe MFC then ATL).

I have asked several people about learning C++ in the last 2 years (who were or are deep in the COM|ATL|MFC world) and they all have told me not to bother learning C++. It seems since they already know what they want out of C++ and are now looking forward to C#. Fact is they have the option of always jumping back to unmanaged code...interesting that none of them ever stated that it just might be worth it to go ahead and at least learn it.