SGI Windows NT Toolbox

Required Reading List for NT Windows Development

Baron Roberts
Web Publishing Group, Silicon Graphics, Inc.


As with learning any new technology there is a set of required reading. Learning the terminology is as important in Windows development as learning the technologies. The following list represent the minimum working set that should be read in order to come up to speed on Windows development. The books are listed in the order in which they should be read. All of these books can be purchased online from Computer Literacy or Amazon.com books.
  • Petzold, Charles. Programming Windows 95. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 1996, ISBN 1-55615-676-6. $49.95

    This is the bible. You learn the equivalent of UNIX and X in this book.

  • Prosise, Jeff. Programming Windows with MFC. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1996, ISBN 1-55615-902-1. $49.95

    You learn what it takes to develop a first-class windows application.

  • Richter, Jeffrey. Advanced Windows, 3rd Edition. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1996, ISBN 1-57231-548-2. $49.99

    You learn about Windows DLLs, memory management, process and thread handling and many other important system level capabilities.

  • Rogerson, Dale. Inside COM. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1996, ISBN 1-57231-349-8. $34.99

    The best and clearest book available on the Component Object Model (COM). COM is the backbone of ActiveX components.

  • Born, Gunter. Inside the Registry for Microsoft Windows 95. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 1997, ISBN 1-57231-424-9. $24.99

    The Windows registry is one of the most critical databases on the system. The system will not function if the registry is corrupted. All application programs must interact with the registry and learning the registry structure and API is critical for any Windows app developer.

  • Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55615-679-0. $29.95

    This is a reference book that provides all the necessary details on where to install software, how to do dialogs, etc. It is as essential a reference book to Windows developers as the SGI style guide is to IRIX developers and then some.

  • Kano, Nadine. Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55615-840-8. $35.00

    Critical to understanding how to write internationalized Window applications.

  • Sanna, Paul, et. al. Using Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Hollis, NH: Que Corporation, 1996, ISBN 0-78971-384-5. $39.99

    Inevitably there will be numerous user-level questions about windows NT. For example, how do I open a shell, how do I customize various features of the desktop, etc., etc. There are numerous books covering these topics and this one is listed more as a place holder for whatever people find useful. This is one type of book that word of mouth and personal preference will eventually pick.

  • Custer, Helen. Inside Windows NT. Redmond Washington: Microsoft Press, 1992, ISBN 1-55615-481-X. $24.95

    Recommended as a book on Windows NT internals.

  • Baker, Art. The Windows NT Device Driver Book. Prentice Hall, 1997, ISBN 0-13184-474-1. $44.95

    Highly recommended for people needing to develop Windows device drivers.

Note that no Win32 or MFC reference books were listed. These fundamental references and more come online with the Visual C++ integrated development environment. It has not proven useful or cost effective to purchase these references in hard copy format.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

On IRIX most software is developed using a combination of standalone tools (e.g. xemacs, xwsh and the compiler). While it is possible to develop Windows software using the same methodology, this is typically not done. Instead most Windows software is developed using an integrated development environment (IDE). An IDE typically consists of a text editor, compiler, debugger, online documentation and other development tools all integrated into one package. The IDE of choice for C++ development on Windows is Microsoft Visual C++. The reasons for this are:

  • The IDE provides an application wizard that generates all the boilerplate for various types of applications. This means that much of the Windows style guide compliance comes for free using the wizards. This also means that workarounds to certain bugs can be provided directly by the wizards.

  • The things that are good about the IDE outweigh the things that are bad. For example, even though the emacs emulation in the IDE text editor is poor, the value of having the editor intimately connected with the compiler and debugger provides quick location of compile and runtime errors and quick fixes.

  • Visual C++ comes complete with the full Win32 and MFC documentation online with full integration into the text editor. This means you can lookup fully indexed documentation on a function highlighted in the editor.

  • New Windows features typically show up first in Visual C++ before any other IDE.

Vendor: Microsoft
Product: Visual C++


Copyright © 1998, Silicon Graphics, Inc.