MFC/Win32 programming??

[nappaji]

I have about 5 years of programming in C/C++ in Unix environment but am new to programming in the Windows environment.

I have used Motif/GTK for GUI development in UNIX environment.

What is the most commonly used GUI tool/language in the Windows environment??
Is MFC widely used?? How is MFC different from Win32 programming??

Please advise.

 

[JackZhang]

What is the most commonly used GUI tool/language in the Windows environment??
It is certainly MS Visual Studio.

Is MFC widely used??
Yes or No. MFC supplies classes representing key Windows objects, such as windows, dialog boxes, brushes, pens, and fonts. The member functions of these classes wrap most of the important Win32 API functions associated with the encapsulated object. The MFC class member function calls the Win32 API function, and might add functionality.
MFC has been challenged by the new emerged .Net technology featured by c# language. While MFC is not always the best or most modern library for writing new applications, it continues to offer features that are not available elsewhere.

How is MFC different from Win32 programming??

The Win32 application programming interface (API) provides building blocks used by applications written for the Microsoft Windows operating system family. (MFC) encapsulates, or "wraps," much (but not all) of the Win32 API, as described above.

 

[hughLg]

So if I wanna developing Windows-base software, is Win32 API all I need?

If Win32 API is all I need, why bother MFC? Since the MFC code is different. Don't we need to learn more for same functionality?

And MFC is only available in Microsoft's development tools, it cannot be used in others like dev-C++ or Borland C++ compiler...

 

[timmay3141]

Yes, Win32 is all you need, but saying MFC is worthless because all you need is Win32 is like saying C++ is worthless because you can write all your code in asm. MFC greatly speeds the development in some projects but is nearly worthless in others, it just depends. You'll never find something you can do with MFC but cannot do with Win32, but you'll find many things you can do very quickly and easily with MFC that would take a very long time to do with just Win32.

 

[Zech]

Another thing to add is that I generally find it easier to find reference/examples from MSDN on MFC than on Win32 API.

MFC also forces you to use C++ (MFC is object-based), whereas with Win32 API you have the flexibility to use C or C++.

 

[cpjust]

Also, since Win32 is not object based, you can call Win32 APIs from other languages like Visual Basic...