What You Need to Know

To make effective use of this tutorial, you should have some experience programming in C and some familiarity with Microsoft Windows programming. Because the Microsoft Foundation Class Library uses C++, the more you know about the C++ language the better.

You can improve your understanding of Windows programming with the Microsoft Windows SDK documentation and with books like Programming Windows, Version 3, second edition, by Charles Petzold, and Peter Norton's Windows 3.0 Power Programming Techniques, by Peter Norton and Paul Yao.

You can improve your understanding of C++ programming with the C++ tutorial included in your Microsoft C/C++ package or with C++ Primer, second edition, by Stanley B. Lippman.

Chapters 3 through 6 cover Windows programming with the Microsoft Foundation Class Library. Chapter 2 and part of Chapter 4 cover non-Windows programming.