Sunday, January 27, 2008

Windows App?

So I started finding out about tutorials on windows applications in C++. I asked Zhanar about it but all I could get out of her was "explore" so that's what I'm doing. I did a bit of research and it seems that there is some 'tension' between people using Microsoft DirectX and OpenGL. I decided to learn how to use OpenGL because that's the one I have a tutorial for. It seems the major difference between the two is that DirectX includes things for video and sound and other devices whereas OpenGL is solely video.

The tutorial is from the same website that I have been using (www.cprogramming.com). It has an easy to read format and makes sense to me most of the time. Details are described, which is important. There are tons of 'complicated' things to know about windows programs. For instance, the include thing is not but rather which makes sense, I guess.

One thing I instantly noticed about windows code was that it had things that I remembered from Visual Basic. Glancing at the example of code (hello world) on the cprogramming tutorial I could see a section where things such as size, cursor, or background could be assigned. The Visual Basic alternative would be the nice list of parameters for each form.

If all goes well, things should begin to sink in soon. I'm still rather baffled by all of this weird windows ... things? I don't even know what to call them......

1 comment:

GeekTeach said...

I have read disparaging things about learning Visual Basic as a first language - but I think it makes you understand and objects because the attributes are so easy to change. WINDOWS is a daunting beast.. best of luck with the monster.

~Richard.