What is this book about? Visual C++ 6.0 was released in 1998 as a component of Visual Studio 6.0. For three years, until the launch of Visual Studio .NET to support the .NET Framework, it was Microsoft's premier development product. Now five service packs old, version 6.0 remains the environment of choice for many developers who haven't yet made the move to .NET. If your aim is to learn how to program in C++ on the Windows platform, with all the help offered by the Visual Studio interface, Visual C++ 6.0 remains a sound choice. What does this book cover? Beginning Visual C++ 6 can be broken down into four sections. The first is a fast-paced but thorough tutorial to the C++ language, punctuated with interesting and worthwhile example programs. After that, you'll learn about object orientation with C++, and how this relates to Windows programming - the section ends with the design and implementation of a sizable class-based C++ application. The third part of the book walks the reader through creating Windows applications using the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC). This includes the following: Outputting to the screen and printer Creating menus, toolbars, and dialogs Debugging your program Responding to a user's actions To illustrate the theory, this section also includes the complete implementation of a simple but fully-featured drawing application. The final section comprises a grounding in programmatic database access, an introduction to Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM), and examples of how to create ActiveX controls using both MFC and the Active Template Library (ATL). This book was voted Amazon.com's C++ Book of the Year in 1998. It contains countless examples for you to follow and experiment with, and there are challenging exercises and model solutions in every chapter. Who is this book for? This book is for anyone who wants to learn C++ and Windows programming with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. Although progress will be easier if you have some experience of a programming discipline, an adept newcomer will also succeed in taming object-oriented programming and writing real Windows applications.