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ahuimanu

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I tried to search for MFC but the search function won't allow a search on a term that short...

The question:

Do you find that you tend to use C#/.NET or C++ for your SimConnect apps? If you use C++, do you tend to use MFC? If you do use MFC, can you recommend a good book and/or reference (other than what is at MSDN)? I haven't touched MFC for 10 years, but I'd like to try my hand at making a C++ client rather than a .NET client. I recall that MFC has a pretty reasonable library for GUIs, Socket IO, file IO and multi-threading?

Okay, that's several questions... ;)

The gist of it is: is there any compelling reason to use C++ over C#/.NET other than the in-process and out-of-process difference?
 
Personally, I hated MFC when it was introduced many years ago, and I still hate it today :-> It didn't add anything over and above regular C/WIN32/GDI programming, except a bunch of overhead :-> Personally, I use C# & WPF whenever possible these days (which is why I'm writing a replacement managed simconnect client :-> ).

Tim
 
I use C# exclusively for external apps.

I use C++ and MFC for in-process.

I only use MFC for UI type stuff, which it makes just quite a bit simpler, and I'm not very good at it. In fact, I hate MFC with a vengeance - it's a huge time consumer. It's one of those where "only after you discover how to do it, you will know what to look for in the docs".

I also use C++ to provide C# with support not in the managed Simconnect client.


Etienne
 
To get you started in the right direction on WPF and SimConnect, see this blog post.

Etienne - I wouldn't even bother with MFC for the UI, I find straight Win32 API to be just as easy, without the headaches (I did the chat widget that you see in the MP dialogs as a set of straight Win32 API controls, would have been murder trying to do those under MFC :-> ). Of course, that's how I originally learned Windows programming, so that may have something to do with it - but I still much prefer C#/WPF these days :->
 
beatle said:
To get you started in the right direction on WPF and SimConnect, see this blog post.

Etienne - I wouldn't even bother with MFC for the UI, I find straight Win32 API to be just as easy, without the headaches (I did the chat widget that you see in the MP dialogs as a set of straight Win32 API controls, would have been murder trying to do those under MFC :-> ). Of course, that's how I originally learned Windows programming, so that may have something to do with it - but I still much prefer C#/WPF these days :->
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I too prefer C#, but I like to keep the ol' C/C++ muscle worked from time to time. What's your Win32 reference recommendation? Petzold?
 
Tim,

I'm a bit too far in what I'm doing to remove MFC at this point - and probably should have stuck with straight win32. The biggest problem is accessing the UI hooks in FS as it's only a bunch of hacks right now as nothing's exposed (that I know of anyway), and that doesn't make any UI coding very simple :)

I'd love to do only C# and WPF. I had a panel in WPF and 3D, and it didn't do shadows too well - the technology has a lot of potential though.

Etienne
 
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