hi. please can you help me out. i have read through about 400 of 600 pages of programming and all it contains is programming in dos. do i really need to learn this. i bought windows game programming guru book but that is just way to complicated for me. how did you learn how to program. what books would you recommend for me. thanks alot to any that can help.

I think I started with x86 assembly, then moved onto C and C++, not a route I''d recomend

There was a great tutorial on windows progarmming a few days ago take a look on that one it should get your started

This is my suggestion to you. I learned this way, and I''m sure many other people have too. I suggest that you just go for it and build a 3d engine. Now I know you''re saying, "That''s way beyond me!!", but really it isn''t. There is SO much information out there on the net, right here for instance!! Honestly, 90% of what you get on the net is better, or at least as good as as what you''ll get in books, no offense to Andre!! Here''s what I would do, get yourself hooked up with DirectX 8, and start with the tutorials. Windows really isn''t as hairy as it seems, trust me! I know how it is, I freaked when I saw all those constants and all that message processing nonsense for the first time! The most important thing to do, and the best way to learn it if you ask me, is to just look at the code supplied in the DirectX 8 tutorials. When you see a function or constant you don''t understand, look it up on MSDN and it will all make sense. Just believe that it isn''t as bad as it looks and you''ll be fine!
Good luck.

I assume you are learning C or C++. Those console applications you are writing now are the backbone of programming. You will be using just about everything you learn writing those DOS apps when you move into Windows programming. Keep reading and writing those DOS apps. You have to crawl before you walk. Once you''ve finished a C or C++ book or two, and really understand things like classes, inheritance, and custom data types, the Win32 SDK will start to make sense to you. So to answer you... Yes, you do need to know what you are learning now, keep reading and writing until you understand it.

If anyone can direct me to this great Windows programing tutorial, I''d really like to see it.

If you REALLY want to learn Windows programming, there are several good books out there you can read. All the SDK samples do is provide you with a skeleton and how to process messages. It doesn''t really cover all the other stuff you can do with the Windows API... like scroll bars, painting, and such.

i am programming in c++. i think i will continue to finish my book on dos programming. then i think from what ive read i should use the direct x sdk and just read throught that. thanks for everyones help. so far i havent seen really many good books for newbies on programming in windows.

Funny, thast just how I learned win programming. I was a DJGPP/allegro user. Then I left that casue i could not find a good dos multiplayer library. So I came to windows for directplay. Then I got a great game idea and haveing never done windows or 3d stuff before, I decided to make the game. Starting with the engine. I remember I was confused as hell about handles and stupid hungarian crap for a while. The sd tutorials help alot. The irony in my story, my new game will not be multiplayer....

Personally I would suggest C++ Builder. It lets you write Windows programs with a bare understanding of the Windows API and in the process you learn not just the API, but some good programming practices as well. It is an abstraction of the Windows API, but usually most of the actions you take are single Windows API calls or a sequence that must be executed together.

where can i find c++ builder and tutorials on it, etc...thanks