The Development Library

The Development Library is the comprehensive reference on programming for the Microsoft Windows and Windows NT operating systems. Because the Library is updated every three months, developers can be sure they have access to the most current product documentation and technology information.

This growing CD-ROM reference of over 125,000 pages of programming information already includes all documentation for development products such as the Win32 SDK; Visual C++ (both 16 and 32-bit editions); C/C++ 7.0; MASM 6.1; Windows 3.1 SDK, DDK, and MDK (Multimedia Development Kit); Visual Basic; Office Developer's Kit; Microsoft Excel SDK; Word for Windows Macro Development Kit; Microsoft Access; and Microsoft FoxPro for Windows.

The Development Library also includes the following:

• Over 1,600 sample applications, fully documented and tested, written in Visual Basic, C, and Visual C++™ that demonstrate development techniques.
• More than 200 previously unpublished technical articles written exclusively for the Development Library. These technical articles discuss complex Windows programming topics in great detail, helping developers solve complex programming problems.
• The latest specs, covering technologies such as Plug and Play, Extended Capabilities Port, and True Type.
• Microsoft Press books, such as Richter's Advanced Windows NT, Petzold's Programming Windows 3.1, and Kraig Brockschmidt's Inside OLE 2.
• Complete issues of the Microsoft Systems Journal with source code, plus selected articles on Visual Basic from the Cobb Group and the Visual Basic Programmer's Journal.
• The complete Developer Knowledge Base, containing over 13,000 articles, with bug reports and work arounds on all Microsoft development products.
• Tools and utilities such as the Windows Help Authoring Tools.
• Self-paced courses on topics such as DIBs (device-independent bitmaps), MDI (multiple document interface), palette manipulation, printing, and common dialog boxes.
• Papers, presentations, and sample code from conferences, such as Tech*Ed '94.

The Development Library is easy to browse, annotate, and search. The intuitive Windows interface lets you view formatted text and graphics, print topics, and easily import source code into your application. A Contents list displays the Library's content hierarchically by type of information (for example, Product Documentation, Technical Articles, and Sample Code), making it easy to browse all the information on the Library. A full-text, Boolean search engine makes it easy to query the entire Library for specific information.

The powerful Keywords list is the fastest way to look up information on Windows APIs and language functions. With it, you can instantaneously retrieve definitions of all the Windows 3.1 and Win32 APIs, window messages and structures, and C/C++, Visual Basic, MASM, Access, and FoxPro® functions from a scrollable, alphabetical list.

Every one of the hundreds of sample applications on the Library is preceded by a short abstract; all are clearly listed in the source index. You can also jump to relevant samples from the technical articles and Microsoft Systems Journal articles that refer to them. You can execute the sample code via the Library, and you can easily view and copy the source code to your own hard drive. These sample applications eliminate the need to write code for commonly used routines and save you the trouble of keying in and debugging the code. They also provide excellent examples of various programming techniques. Because you never have to leave your computer to check reference materials, you can stay focused on your project and save development time. You can also place bookmarks to identify topics that you read frequently in the Development Library.