Visual C++ 6 Core Language Little Black Book

From the Book: Introduction Introduction I wrote this book because I grew tired of reaching for language and library references and shuttling CD-ROMs back and forth from case to drive as I programmed using Visual C++ 6. Perhaps a few savants manage to learn everything about C++, its libraries, and the Visual C++ development environment. But surely only a handful manage to retain that information at their fingertips, poised for instant recall. The rest of us spend a goodly portion of our programming time looking up information that we can’t recall. This book is intended to save us time and effort, by combining in one relatively small book information about the C++ language, the C/C++ libraries, and the Visual C++ environment and tools. Who This Book Is For If you’re an intermediate or advanced programmer, I’m confident you’ll find this book useful. However, this is not a book for beginners. I wrote as clearly as I know how and a team of editors called into question every ambiguous or incomplete construction that got past me. But, the original meaning of the word manual was a book that fit in one’s hand, and I wanted this book to be a manual in exactly that sense of the word. Others have written multivolume works that address a mere fraction of the material presented in this book. Using such books is inconvenient at best. However, making this book a manual required me to leave out examples and long-winded explanations that are sometimes essential to beginners unfamiliar with the territory. The chief value of this book is in helping you recall what you once knew and helping you apply your already considerable knowledge to some less familiar areas of the C++ language, its libraries, and the Visual C++ environment. The Structure Of This Book Part I of the book summarizes the syntax and semantics of the C++ language. Railroad diagrams, long a staple in the Pascal community, are used to simply and clearly present the syntax of C++. Use Part I, for example, to refresh or clarify your understanding of C++ exception handling. Part II of the book summarizes the principal C/C++ libraries, compactly describing each constant, type, and routine they define. Use Part II, for example, to refresh your recollection of the function and parameters of a string-handling library routine or to discover which routine performs a needed function. Part III of the book summarizes the Visual C++ 6 development environment, describing its tools and the techniques required to use them. Use Part III, for example, to learn how to create an image resource or change its properties. How To Use This Book This book is designed for use as a reference book; I don’t anticipate that you’ll read it from beginning to end. Instead, you’ll open it when you need help with a specific problem. To help you find relevant information as quickly as possible, each chapter of this book contains the following elements: • A "jump table," which is a list of the most important Immediate Solutions presented in the chapter. You can use the jump table as a mini table of contents for the chapter, jumping directly to the page that addresses your need. • An In Brief section, which presents an overview of the chapter contents. You can read this section to quickly refresh your memory of the chapter contents and to learn general information that applies to a variety of problems and situations. • An Immediate Solutions section, which provides "quick fixes" to specific needs or problems. In some chapters, an Immediate Solution takes the form of a step-by-step procedure that you can use to accomplish a specific task. In other chapters, an Immediate Solution describes the function, operation, and parameters of a specific C++ library routine. • Cross-reference tables, which help you quickly locate related information contained elsewhere in the book. Conventions This book uses italic font to highlight the definitions of important terms and to indicate placeholders, such as macro and function arguments. Brief code phrases that appear within text are shown using a bold font. Code examples are shown using a monospaced font: // This is a line of code. Throughout this book, you’ll find tips, notes, and warnings: • Tips provide information intended to help you work with Visual C++ more efficiently and effectively. • Notes provide additional details that may prove useful in special or infrequent circumstances. • Warnings point out risks and obstacles so that you can avoid problems. Feedback I hope that you find this book useful and that it helps you work more efficiently. Your comments and suggestions for corrections, improvements, and additions are most welcome; please send them to me via email, at [email protected]. Please include the title of this book in your message.