Good Win32 (Windows API) Programming Book?

[winlonghorn]

I am looking for a good Win32 (Windows API) book. I would like it to be as recent as possible and include information about how I would program for Windows 7 as well. Any recommendations? I know .NET programming and want to learn to move on to systems level programming. Thank you in advance.

[winlonghorn]

*Bump. Anyone? :)

[GreenMartian]

*Bump. Anyone? :)

No need to bump. It's only been 18 minutes.

With Win7 not even reaching RTM yet, your best bet would be online resources instead of books..

Edit: Here's a good one from MS: Windows 7 RC Training Kit for Developers

[winlonghorn]

No need to bump. It's only been 18 minutes.

With Win7 not even reaching RTM yet, your best bet would be online resources instead of books..

The problem is that I need one resource to learn it and not a bunch of scattered resources. I need the organization to help me focus without hunting and pecking lol. That is why I like books for learning. :)

[code.kliu.org]

Bumping after just 19 minutes? :rolleyes:

Programming Windows is a classic and is arguably the best book, though old. As for Win7, first, I'm not sure if there's a book for that, given that the APIs for Win7 were only recently documented; plus, MSDN provides a pretty good reference for the new APIs (almost all of them COM APIs) in Win7. Besides, the specific APIs of each Windows version are largely unimportant because the main concepts are fairly stable and are mostly unchanged through all versions, and that's what you'll get from Petzold. Get a feel for the Windows architecture and platform, and the APIs are just details that you can look up in the docs (which you have to refer to anyway for specifics on each function's parameters and return codes, etc).

Or you can just do what I did: look at the docs and look at sample code; programming isn't history class: books are not that important when it comes to learning this stuff.

[winlonghorn]

Bumping after just 19 minutes? :rolleyes:

Get Petzold. Programming Windows is a classic and is arguably the best book. As for Win7, first, I'm not sure if there's a book for that, and MSDN provides a pretty good reference for the new APIs (almost all of them COM APIs) in Win7. Besides, the specific APIs of each Windows version are largely unimportant because the main concepts are fairly stable and are mostly unchanged through all versions. Get a feel for the Windows architecture and platform, and the APIs are just details that you can look up in the docs (which you have to refer to anyway for specifics on each function's parameters and return codes, etc).

Thank you. :) Sorry about the bump. I just needed to get an answer for the friend who is buying the book and they had to leave soon.

[azcodemonkey]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_9?u...refix=win32+pro

Read reviews. Generally, MS books are very good when it comes to Win32 apps. The Windows via C/C++ is probably a good bet. Jeffery Richter is a very well-known resource for Win32 and Windows programming in general. the Petzold book is excellent, as well, but doesn't deal with newer APIs. It is invaluable, though.

[winlonghorn]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_9?u...refix=win32+pro

Read reviews. Generally, MS books are very good when it comes to Win32 apps. The Windows via C/C++ is probably a good bet. Jeffery Richter is a very well-known resource for Win32 and Windows programming in general. the Petzold book is excellent, as well, but doesn't deal with newer APIs. It is invaluable, though.

Ok, great. Thank you. :)

EDIT: I am buying the petzold book. I read the amazon preview and it looks fantastic! :)

Edited July 20, 2009 by winlonghorn

[hdood]

Petzold's book was good, but you people need to be realistic. It is an old book. Very old. Over a decade old, and very dated. I'm not so sure if it can be recommended anymore, even though the basics haven't changed that much.

If you're interested in online resources, http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/start.html is not bad, especially when combined with MSDN. Let's say you want some more in-depth details about Windows, you could just head over to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms...28VS.85%29.aspx

If you look in the tree on the left, it also has sections explaining window procedures, window classes, input, the various controls, etc. Most parts have example code as well. It's the main reference site for the Windows APIs, so it's something you have to bookmark. As for Windows 7, it has many new things in various areas. Let's say you wanted to use the new API that gives you a progress bar in the task bar button, this is the method to do it (along with SetProgressValue). Only one problem though, it's a COM interface exposed by the shell (Explorer), which means you need to have a basic understanding of COM (which you'd have to get somewhere else). You also need this to do various other things like multimedia, image processing, etc.

Just as a little example, you'd set the progress bar to 20% and turn it red to indicate an error like this (without any error checking or autopointers):

ITaskbarList3 *tl3 = NULL;
hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TaskbarList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
	__uuidof(ITaskbarList3), IID_PPV_ARGS(&tl3));

hr = tl3->HrInit();

hr = tl3->SetProgressValue(hwnd, 20, 100);
hr = tl3->SetProgressState(hwnd, TBPF_ERROR);

tl3->Release();

It's not that complex, you just create an instance of the class with CoCreateInstance, and then call the various methods it exposes as you see fit. Of course, you have to learn this somewhere.

[code.kliu.org]

even though the basics haven't changed that much.

Well, that's what he needs, though. An understanding of the platform. Knowing the difference between SendMessage and PostMessage. That kind of stuff.

Of course, you have to learn this somewhere.

Yes, and the MSDN library contains plenty of documentation and code samples for the new features and APIs introduced in the past decade.

Developing for any platform can be separated into understanding the platform (e.g., how does the message queue work, or what exactly are windows?) and knowing the specific incantations needed to invoke feature XYZ. The former is fairly static and is mostly timeless and is thus book-worthy. OTOH, it doesn't make sense to have the latter in a book (what would a book do, beyond a dry, hard-to-search regurgitation of documentation and sample code found in the MSDN library?).

[Patrick333]

The best Win32 references remain : the Petzold, The Richter, the Russinovich and the Advanced Win32 api newsgroup

(for undocumented Win32 apis (and hidden controls) and even apis source code...)

[ilovetech]

thanks even i was looking for same info!