Overview

Whatever programming language or development environment you use, the Windows application that you end up with will look the same and behave in the same way. Indeed, much of the compiled code will probably be similar. However, the method by which you arrive at the final application will vary considerably, depending on the development route you have selected.

This chapter looks at the ways in which the basis is devised for a new application, using three development environments.

Development Directories

Before starting any new project you should create a directory to hold the many source files that will be generated during development. Regardless of the language or IDE that you are using, any Windows project will be comprised of many different files and it is essential that these be grouped together well away from the language files or other projects.

As a general rule, it is a good idea to create the project directory as a subdirectory of a main development directory. Each new application will have its own subdirectory of this directory. In the examples in this book, the applications are all in subdirectories of a directory called C:\OOP. Avoid putting the projects in the language's own directories, as this will lead to confusion later. In the case of Visual C ++, all you need do is create the main development directory; the project subdirectories will be created for you. For the other languages, create a subdirectory of this directory for each new application.

When one project has...