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This is such a silly question, but i'm a beginner programmer, and I was following along a youtube tutorial on how to make a digital clock in the C language, and before the main() function there was #include<windows.h>. My computer had an error and after looking it up, I found out that is a file specific to windows? I saw some others said there are ways to "replace" the file or something, but i'm not really sure what to do. Anything helps. Thanks for your time.
Windows and macOS have very different interfaces. Apples uses a generic tool for all its platforms, thus there's no exact equivalent for windows.h in macOS. The closest equivalent I could find was Cocoa. (I'm not an Apple developer, I work mostly on Windows and Linux)
Use the official documentation as a starting point for developing apps on a specific or generic Apple platform. As it is a widely used platform, I expect you will find support on most issues you will encounter given your experience level, on the apple forum.
Also I found this nice tutorial that gives a basic introduction on Apple API's.
I recently was made aware of this thing called IOCP on windows and i began searching for more information on it but i couldn't find anything up to date (most of the examples were on codeproject almost 5 years old) and not too many guides or tutorials. Can anyone recommend any up to date resources about it in the form of online tutorials or example projects (that you wrote and can share or other open source projects) or even a book about it because if it's as good as it sounds i plan to use it extensively so i will invest in it.
Thank You.
If you're looking at IOCP from a Network programming point of view then you probably also want to add Network Programming for Microsoft Windows to your list of resources.
There were lots of basic IOCP tutorials on CodeProject back in 2002 when I wrote my articles on IOCP there, so I took a slightly different approach and wrote some code that was, hopefully, reusable as a simple networking framework. This has since grown into a product that I sell. The latest version of the code that's associated with the original CodeProject articles can be found here: http://www.serverframework.com/products---the-free-framework.html I've changed it considerably over the years but the original code still works fine and provides good scalability and is, perhaps, useful as a working example to learn from.
IOCP is a feature that has been in Windows since the dark ages and has changed little in years since. As such, any samples etc. from 5+ years ago should still work pretty well today.
MSDN has some documentation on IOCP:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365198%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
Mark Russinovich also wrote up a great intro into IOCP:
http://sysinternals.d4rk4.ru/Information/IoCompletionPorts.html
Mark also wrote a more thorough description of Windows' IO infrastructure in "Windows Internals" which is essential reading.
I also strongly recommend Jeffery Richter's "Windows via C/C++" which is also essential reading for anyone embarking on lower-level Windows programming.
HTH.
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I'm very new to programming, and I'd like to write a Windows Application. So far I've read Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours, what should I do (tutorial to read) next to accomplish my goal? Thanks
When I first started developing applications for Windows (about 15 years ago) I recall reading some very useful stuff by Charles Petzold. His more recent books are about C#, but his older books are still relevant because the Win32 API has not changed that much when it comes to the basics.
Hello, World!
Write the famous "Hello, World" program (Google it if unsure):
To output text to the console.
To output text to a dialog window.
To make the dialog appear after selecting a menu item.
Then, if you are still keen:
Write a program that allows a person to type in text into a text field. Display that text in a dialog window after clicking a button.
Save the text to a file.
Write a program to read the file and display its contents in a window.
That should get you started learning the fundamentals of what is happening when writing a Windows application.
Also, read all the links that people recommend you read, in this thread and others.
Old vs. New
Advice for learning .NET, C#, and C++ is great. Those technologies hide a lot of the boring "grunt" work for you. I still feel it is good to have an understanding of what is happening at a lower level for various reasons, including:
Learning C is applicable to more than Windows-based applications (some would argue .NET and C# are portable, which is true in theory, whereas ANSI C and Java are portable in practice).
Understanding what is hidden will allow you to avoid technical blunders and diagnose deep technical issues.
At this point it really depends on your goals. If all you want to do is write a Windows application, then use modern technologies that are better suited to such a task. If you want to write a Windows application with an understanding of how to write applications in general (not necessarily just for Windows), then keep pursuing the C path for now, and branch into other technologies as you expand your knowledge.
Depends on the application. But what you need now is to familiarize yourself with an API. APIs are basically premade functions that you use as tools to do... whatever it is the API was designed to help you do. You're looking for a graphical user interface API. Windows has its own but I recommend you use something crossplatform so your application will work on multiple platforms.
Look these up on wikipedia:
GTK+
Trolltech's QT4
They can pretty much do anything the windows API can do with the added benefit of working on multiple platforms like windows, linux, mac, etc.
http://winprog.org/tutorial/
These are pretty good for learning Win32. Charles Petzold is good resource if you can get your hands on a copy but The Forger's are free and you can have them in your hot little hands right now.
In general though you should spend some time just writting C/C++ apps that use the standard libraries first. Opening files, writing output, writing files, reading/writing stdio and get a good handle on the basics of the language first.
Looking up books on data structures, and analysis of algorithms are fundemental to any type of programming you want to do as well.
Read this.
Are you suggesting that you'd like to write a Windows desktop app in C? That's reaching back a long way. You're back in 2002, according to this.
Most people writing on Windows are using .NET, which means C++ or C#.
If you need some GUI or complex features,
You need some oriented object programming skills...
You can read some of this book serie : Head first... from O'Reilly
Head first Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
Head First Software Development
Head first C# or Java (It doesn't matter which language...)
Trolltech Qt4, it's a must, too ! Thanks CptAJ
They are very nice books for beginners... and advanced programmers too ;-)
Nice reading !
I disagree with a lot of the answers here... learning from the ground up is not a bad thing.
I wouldn't go out and make a whole app in C, but certainly making a little app in C is a good way to both learn the language and to appreciate (or more likely, detest) the win32 API.
Besides, you can't really appreciate what the newer languages/frameworks do for you if you don't experience the old painful way of doing things.
That said, recognize that there are newer languages and frameworks out there and learn them as well; particularly if you're trying to land a job.
I highly recommend theForger's Win32 API Programming Tutorial. It's very concise and easy to follow, and it's free.
While I won't say you've wasted your time learning some C, I'm guessing it's not where you're going to end up either.
If you really want to get rolling, without too much trouble, I'd highly suggest getting:
Visual Studio C# Express (it's free, and it's a great development environment)
A book on C#...Petzold is great, so a book like Programming Microsoft Windows with C# is perfect.
This should get you pretty much exactly what you want. You'll have everything you need, and Petzold starts you out very simply, and ramps you up to making interesting apps without losing you.
(You may wonder why I, and many other people are directing you to C# or other languages after you specifically said that you've already read and learned about C. This is because programming in windows using the old Win32 API is much more tedious. It is easy to quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of extra chaff that has to go into it.)
At Microsoft, we have been working hard to come up with some great resources for simply creating Windows applications. Our page, Start Programming with Windows 7, will be sourced with tons of new resources for intermediate and advanced programmers.
There are two really important new learning series that we have been working on:
The Hilo Project: An application built from the ground up to show how you can develop programs that are specifically taylored to Windows 7 features using the most modern programming and application design methodologies.
The Learn to Program for Windows Module: An introduction to Windows programming written by a developer education expert at Microsoft. This module sounds more like what you are looking for, I recommend you check it out.
We're working on ways to surface learning resources as best we can on the Windows Developer Center - a collection of developer learning resources for people new to developing Windows or new to developing using the latest Windows features.
Additional guidance is coming through the new Home and Hub resources for client / Desktop applications on the MSDN homepage.
Try Ramp Up's Developer Basics, a microsoft learning road that shows stpe by stpe how to start windows programming. You can use the Visual C# Express version of Visual Studio as a development enviroment.
Read this book, Learn to Program with C#.
Then, make small projects in WPF; the best WPF book is Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed; try that after reading the C# / beginning-programming book.
C#, the .NET Framework and WPF were created to move beyond the C Win32 API, to make it easier to create Windows applications.
If you want to make a standard Windows application, follow that path.
I would suggest using VB rather than C#. The syntax is a little friendlier, and it has all equivalent features and performance.
Why not follow the MSDN tutorials? If you don't like them try googling "VB tutorial".
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/hewcw458.aspx
Either VB or C# has a zillion examples of everything that can be googled. I would stick to either of these languages, if only for the "google support" alone.
I am eventually wanting to program in Objective-C to write programs for OS X and possibly the iPhone. I do not have any direct experience with C and I come from a web programming background. I am much more familiar with java syntax than C and Objective C.
I am just looking for suggestions on how to get started. It looks like I need to just start with C (I do not yet have a Mac computer powerful enough for programming, so it would be nice to start with C on the Windows platform anyway (information about programming environments would be helpful too, I am used to eclipse)). I am just looking for book recommendations, online tutorials or any other pointers to keep in mind. Keep in mind though that my end goal is to work with Objective-C, so is there anything I need to keep in mind when learning C, anything to watch out for, etc. Thanks for any input.
Update: The reason I am thinking I need to learn C first is that most of the tutorials that I have come across so far for Objective-C assume you already understand C syntax, which I do not fully. Are there better tutorials out there for me?
I don't entirely agree with unwind who says "C and Objective-C are different languages". Objective-C is a strict superset of C.
Of course he knows that - his point was that you don't need to completely master C before progressing onto Objective-C. I'll second that (and hopefully have clarified it).
But I do think it's worth getting some basics with C first, as most introductory texts on Objective-C will assume a basic knowledge.
I don't have any recommendations on that myself, but probably most internet based tutorials will be sufficient for that purpose (remember, you're not trying to master it at this stage). If you want to take it seriously, then "The C Programming Language" by K&R is the classic text.
When you you can do some basic hello world programs in C, and understand the type system, pointers and stuff - then pick up a copy of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X", by Aaron Hillegass. This is a book about Cocoa that covers Objective-C along the way, but it one of the best presented coverages of the language. It will assume you are coding on a Mac (it's in the context of Cocoa after all). You may be able to follow the pure language stuff using GCC on Windows, but I wouldn't recommend it.
If you're going to be working on a Mac eventually, then best to do it at this stage, IMHO. You say you don't have a Mac "powerful enough for programming", but anything that can run OS X would be fine to get your started.
If you know java, obj-c will be easy for you (java was influenced a lot by obj-c.) Apple has great documentation, you can start here. I don't think you need to learn C before learning obj-c (sorry Joel).
You can use obj-c on windows if you get gcc. Also check out cocotron:
The Cocotron is an open source project
which aims to implement a
cross-platform Objective-C API similar
to that described by Apple Inc.'s
Cocoa documentation. This includes the
AppKit, Foundation, Objective-C
runtime and support APIs such as
CoreGraphics and CoreFoundation.
With all the buzz about iPhone development, there are now dozens of obj-c books. Not sure how good they are, but a classic that I would suggest is Cocoa Programming from Mac OSX by Aaron Hillegass.
Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan is what you want. It assumes no programming experience but doesn't hold you back if you do and introduces the whole thing, C with the Objective-C superset, as a complete package. I read the first half of Kochan (the second half gets into Cocoa) and now I'm working on Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (3rd Edition) by Aaron Hillegass and reading Kochan was a massive help. Those two are a "one-two punch" that will get you going in no time.
Have a C and Objective-C reference handy as Apple's docs of C in XCode pretty much sucks from what I've seen so far. K&R's C text is like the Encyclopedia Brittanica of C and, just like a set of encyclopedias, isn't for everyone. I've just been Googling for references and generally find what I need on the web since C is so ubiquitous.
You'll burn through a couple of books before you find the set that best fits you, but you simply can't go wrong with Kochan and Hillegass for Objective-C and Cocoa. By the time you finiah the first couple chapters of Hillegass, you'll want to (and be able to) start writing some stuff on your own.
There is a recent blog-entry at Tuaw:
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/01/15/starting-out-with-objective-c/
4 guides about getting started with Objective-C, which helped me quite a lot when I started developing in Xcode. You should take a look at this:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/Learning_Objective-C_A_Primer/
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH1-SW1
I'd say that it's better to learn C first. be sure to approach it like what it is: a structured machine language.
when you feel comfortable on it (no need to really master it), go on to Objective C, where you'll rediscover several things familiar from Java, but knowing the C infrastructure will make more apparent when they're similar but not equivalent.
it's very important not to learn a language using what you already know as a 'metaphor' for the new. always try to pretend you didn't know anything before.
I don't know what you mean by a Mac powerful enough to do programming on (any Mac should do), but get yourself something at least marginally useful as a development system soon. (You may well have the development system on one of the CDs that came with your Mac, or alternatively you can download it from Apple.)
The sooner you get Xcode working, the sooner you'll be comfortable with it.
I have recently started to learn programming for the Iphone and tried many differenet books until i found these helped me the most (I would also strongly recomenned getting a mac since the Xcode is the way to go when coding for Iphone):
Apress: Learn C on the Mac (To
get the initial C going)
Apress: Learn Objective-C on the Mac
(Learn Objective-C based on your
understanding of C)
Apress: Learn Cocoa for the mac
(learn apples way of building
applications, greatly helps when
going over to Iphone however you can
go straight to the iphone if you
like)
Apress: Beginning Iphone
development... (The final book,
and essential tool)
To note all these books have the same author and thus the traceability is great! The books have crossreferences between each other that really helps.
Agreeing with others, I found Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX - Hillegass
a great intro to Objective-C, the Cocoa framework and whole Apple way of doing things.
You can run Objective-C on any Linux or Windows box too although of course you won't have access to all the Apple libraries eg. NS (afaik). These frameworks are really the whole point of Objective-C, and the real reason it still exists given C++ and C# came later and are more or less languages designed around themselves (as opposed to Objective-C which is a strict superset of C).
Apart from pointers, I think you can get by without learning all the intricacies and close-to-the-metal aspects of C, although any and all C you can digest always helps.
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What is the best way to get started with programming things outside of your computer?
I don't mean mainstream things like cell phones with APIs.
Please assume working knowledge of C/C++
I vote for the Nintendo DS:
Nice hardware : 2 CPUs, 2 screens, touchscreen, mic, speakers, wireless, 2D and 3D acceleration
No OS to speak of
Freedom to talk to the bare metal without restriction
Well-documented
Very active dev community
Enthusiastic audience for anything cool you create
Cheap (shockingly so if you go for 1st-gen units)
All-in-all it's really excellent fun to play with.
To get started:
Get a DS
Get a SLOT1 flash-cart (I've got a DS-X, but there are plenty of others)
Get devkitpro
Go here for help or advice
Brian, you might find the Arduino interesting. It is inexpensive and pretty popular. I started playing around with micro controller boards and such a few years back and that lead to an interest in robots. Kind of interesting, at least to me.
If one is interested in a .NET-flavored development environment, there is an analog to the arduino call netduino that is worth a look.
Embedded programming is fun.
You can start with things like the Basic stamp or PIC, or since you know c/c++ you can use a real microcrontroller like an Atmel AVR. look at the Butterfly or Arduino kit
The Arduino has an amazing community of projects and info behind it.
It's not a microcontroller, but the Lego Minstorm is a good place to start learning the ins and outs of embedded programming.
I recently heard about the BUG which calls itself "open source hardware development". Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?
Buy yourself an HP 10C Calculator, and then program all those "programming 101" math algorithms using its insanely small but practical calculator language. Reminds me of assembler, but it's not.
I'd strongly recommend to find an open-source project next to one of your leisure occupations.
First, open-source because the support is mostly very friendly, then open-source because other contributors will have at least one comparable hobby, and then favorite pastime occupation so you can see a need for tools etc.
Two projects I have been playing around with very successfully:
Music: Rockbox, a firmware replacement for many mp3-players and portable media players.
Photography: CHDK, a firmware addition to numerous Canon compact still cameras.
Give SparkFun a shot. For me, servos are what I love to hack around with.
You can try with BeagleBoard, though its kind of mainstream, nonetheless very impressive performance to speak off at just 149$.
I'd look into stuff like (unofficial) GBA development or the like, sure there are "Libraries" but you can go digging and just stick bits into specific addresses and make stuff happen. You can't get more "No API" then raw memory-mapped hardware access.
Maybe start with small microcontroller projects.
This may be helpful: http://www.kmitl.ac.th/~kswichit%20/
What sort of things do you want to program?
Sounds like you might be interested in MAKE magazine, and some of their compilations, such as Making Things Talk. With a little bit of experience with basic electronics, you can follow their recipes to do all sorts of odd and interesting things. When you get more comfortable, you can start modding their designs.
Good luck, :)
I have personal experience and would recommend using these products to program PICs:
Programming board
GCBasic (Open Source Basic)
The PICs are cheap ($2 bucks or so) and the board will cost you around $120.
Recently, I have been impressed with TIs wireless USB chips/programmers. You can get 2 chips and a programmer for $50 bucks. It also comes with a free C compiler. By default it comes with a sample remote temperature program.
TI wireless target board
I think it's fun to hack old iPods. You can get a fourth generation iPod (or any of a number of supported devices), run Rockbox on it, then get the source and help hack on it.
I would also recommend AVR (8-bit) and Butterfly or DB101 kit. The main advantage is that there is a GCC compiler available and that you can program them through the Serial Port, without the need of a tool. Inexpensive programming and debugging tools are also available. There is a very strong AVR community in AVRFreaks
Another alternative is ARM7 and ARM9 microcontrollers (32bit). If you are interested in using an OS (ucLinux/FreeRTOS for ARM7, Linux for ARM9), you should go that way. There is of course a free GCC compiler. You can buy kits and tools at Olimex
If you would like to create a cool gadget using a microcontroller as a learning experience, you can look at the starter kits from Rabbit (website). They have a variety of low-cost kits with 8-bit microcontrollers to get started with a particular technology.
There are a lot of programmable robots around. In fact, even some of the Roombas (automated vacuums) can be programmed. This is particularly good if you want to teach kids how to program.
If you have a Nintendo Wii, you can crack it using Twilight Princess. You don't even have to buy it. I just rented it for a couple days. Go to WiiBrew.org and check out some of the projects that are available there. Most if not all are open source, and should give you a good starting point. Lots of ports of existing stuff, along with some original programs written specifically for the Wii. You would of course do the programming on your computer, and transfer the compiled binaries to the Wii. I haven't looked into how hard it is to get a development environment set up and having it build for the Wii, but if you email they project maintainers from wiibrew.org, they may be able to set you up.
[EDIT]
Just browsing around, I found DevkitPro, which seems to be the toolkit of choice for developing on many different console and handheld systems, including the Wii.
To ease yourself into embedded programming, you may want to try using XNA for either the Xbox or the Zune. You won't be doing memory management, but you'll get used to the constrained hardware if you do it on the Zune. Admittedly, it's using C#; but you could always do the programming itself using CIL.