Books For OWL Programmers

Note: The following titles are "recommended" reading for Borland C++ and OWL programmers. The comments are not the views of OWL HOW and are all quotations from the original recommender. If you would like to extend an existing review, or add a review for a book not on this list, please use the contribution form.

Borland C++ and OWL

NEW!
• Core OWL 5.0: OWL Internals for Advanced Programmers
  by Ted Neward
  Softbound, 500 pages, $47.95
  Manning ISBN 1884777503
  Includes CD-ROM
  http://www.manning.com/Neward/index.html
  Core OWL 5.0 teaches you what new capabilities OWL 5.0 offers the OWL programmer, from the exploration of the OWL module-level capabilities to the wide-ranging numbers of Windows controls that OWL offers you, like TTreeWindow and TChecklist. You will gain a deeper understanding of what OWL does on your behalf, such as the OWL messaging system and its message maps, and you will see how new power and new flexibility can be gained from that knowledge.

• Advanced OWL 5.0: Power Tools for OWL Programmers
  by Ted Neward
  Softbound, 650 pages, $49.95
  Manning ISBN 1884777465
  Includes CD-ROM
  http://www.manning.com/Neward2/index.html
  Concentrating on the lesser-known but equally powerful aspects of OWL such as its support for help systems and multiple threads, Advanced OWL 5.0 does more than just introduce those classes the Borland communication glosses over. Instead, it dives deeply into the various aspects of an advanced application and how each of those aspects are covered by the Borland framework.

• Your Borland C++ Companion (SAMS Publishing)
  It covers just about everything. [SAMS] might still have a few copies left if you are interested. Just one thing - it doesn't cover OWL, but it does cover screen savers, splash screens, toolbars, fonts in menus, displaying bitmaps, printing, etc.
• Borland C++ 4.0 Programming for Windows by Paul Yao, Borland Press, ISBN 0-679-75146-7
  I know it's for BC 4.0 (OWL 2.0) but it's the best programming book on OWL I've seen yet. It only covers Windows programming with OWL, doesn't start out with "this is a class." It explains the steps OWL takes to start a Windows application, a little bit of how Windows itself works. Has pretty useful example programs. The only weaknesses are little coverage on printing, TLayout stuff and they want $19.95 for the code disk.
• Windows Graphics Programming With Borland C++ 2nd ed., by Loren Heiny, John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
  All the major graphics programming themes are covered including the Windows GDI, text and fonts, presentation graphics, animation, fractals and interactive drawing tools with a lot of code examples. The highlight of the book is an object oriented drawing tool, OODRAW, which demonstrates how to design and implement a drawing program with the ability to edit, save and print drawings. Highly recommended.
• Borland C++ 4.5 Object Oriented Programming Ted Faison.
  It's great. But... he wrote so little about OWL.
  Professional tips and techiniques, OLE coverage, several variations of listboxes.
• Killer Borland C++ 4 many authors, incl. Greg Perry, Namir Clement Shammas and Clayton Walnum.
  It says a lot about things you will not find in other places, for example RTTI, templates, exceptions, third-party debugging tools, much more.
• Mastering Borland C++ 5.0 Tom Swan, Macmillan Computer Publishing ISBN: 0672308029
  The best author that I've read in CS.
• Windows Programming with Borland C++ 4 Tom Swan (Sams Publishing)
  
• ObjectWindows 2.0 Programming ISBN 0-679-79121-3. Swan, Arnson & Cantu. Borland Press.
  
• Developing Windows Applications with Borland 4.0 McCord.
  
• Borland C++ Insider Paul Cilwa. Wiley.
  
• Borland C++ 4.X Tips, Tricks and Traps Clayton Walnum (Que, 96, 781565-298958)
  I'm always plugging this book :-) It is the most dog earred book on my desk. Not very good for a first book in learning about OWL, but indispensable imo after you've finished an introductory book. The Owl-List FAQ on SERIOUS steroids!
• Teach Yourself OWL Programming in 21 Days by Ian Spencer (SAMS Publishing 1995) Out of print.
  Despite the title, this book contains some fairly advanced material including chapters on printing, subclassing, owner drawn controls, diagnostics, DDEML, OLE, and the Borland Database Engine. It looks like it should be a good resource for people who are new to OWL as well as for us old hands. The book covers OWL through version 2.5, and contains *lots* of example code and a diskette.
• Programming Windows with Borland C++ 4.5 William Roetzheim.
  
• Teach yourself Borland C++ 5 in 21 days 3rd edition, Craig Arnush, SAMS Publishing, ISBN 0-672-30756-1
  
• ObjectWindows Programmer's Guide Borland Press, Sams Publishing, ISBN: 0-672-30924-6
  
• Borland C++ Language Reference Borland Press, Sams Publishing, ISBN: 0-672-30926-2
  
• Borland ObjectWindows Reference Borland Press, Sams Publishing, ISBN: 0-672-30927-0
  
• Borland C++ 4 Developers Guide Nabajoyoti Barkakati, SAMS Publishing
  Covers OOP, OWL, C++ classes. Very good info on bitmaps and various image files, animation, WAV files.
• Programming with OWL for Windows 95 Vic Broquard, Prentice Hall Out of print.
  "With Programming with OWL for Windows 95, you won't just get more out of Borland's OWL C++ 5.0 libraries: you'll streamline all your Windows 95 applications development."

  "I found this book to be an excellent introduction to OWL 5.0. There are numerous examples and a CD-ROM which contains all of the source code discussed in the book. This book packs an incredible amount of information into its nearly 600 pages: everything from a simple "Hello, world" window to a multiple document interface (MDI) application, with menus, toolbars (including dockable toolbars), dialogs, and so on. It also includes more advanced topics such as graphics, timers, printing, sound, and animation effects.

  "There is a small error in the book, though, where it discusses dialogs and dialog data transfer. The transfer buffer should contain short values for radio buttons and check boxes, not integer values (perhaps the size of integers was changed to 32 bits between Borland C++ version 5.0 for which the book was written and Borland 5.02 which is what I used?). Watch out for that one!

  "I feel very fortunate to have found this book since it is out of print. I was also new to C++ at the same time I was new to OWL, and this book was a great help in getting me over that big learning curve."

Standard Windows

• Programming the Windows95 User Interface Nancy Winnock Cluts, MS Press
  
• Programming Windows 95 (ISBN: 1-55615-676-6) Charles Petzold and Paul Yao
  What can you say: edition four updated to Win95 and a second writer
• Windows 3: A Developer's Guide, Advanced Windows Jeffrey M Richter, Microsoft Press
  
• Undocumented Windows Schulman, Maxey and Pietrek. Addison Wessley.
  
• Inside ODBC Microsoft Press
  
• Inside OLE 2" Kraig Brockschmidt, MS Press.
  This one is considered the bible on OLE 2. It does a complete coverage of main topics but some others are not touched at all (OLE Automation).
• OLE 2 Programmmer's Reference (Volume I and II).
  Volume I covers everything but OLE Automation and volume II covers just OLE Automation.
• Developing for the Internet with Winsock Dave Roberts.
  
• Programming WinSock Arthur Dumas (ISBN 0-672-30594-1).
  I found it to be an exelent resource. Also, the author creates a complete set up WinSock classes (for MFC, of course), which I found fairly easy to modify so that they will work with an OWL app.
• Win32 Animation Techniques book (title may not be exact) Nigel Thompson, MS Press.
  Despite the book title, this material is not just Win32-specific.
• Imaging and Animation for Windows Nabajyoti Barkakati
  

General C/C++

• Code Complete Microsoft Press
  Despite the "quality" of some of their software, a good thesis on a structured approach to Bug prevention and detection from a decent writer and a M$ Application Team Leader.
• Annotated C/C++ (2nd Ed.) by Bjarne Strousop, Adisson-Wesley
  He wrote the language definition and has a great deal of good writing about what C/C++ does and >why< it does it that way. You need to read this guy to understand that C is the ultimate programmer's language (or Assembler notation), and will allow anything to be accomplished; C++ increases encapsulation and safety without trying to inhibit the programmer.
• Effective C++ ISBN 0-201-56364-9
  More Effective C++ Scott Meyers, Addison Wesley Press
  Simply a balanced critique of when to, >and NOT to<, use C++ features!
• C++ IOStreams Handbook Steve Teale ISBN: 0-201-59641-5 It has a fish jumping out of a stream on the front cover. You may have to go to the fishing section of the bookstore (no lie.) For some reason ppl think its a fishing book.
• C++ Programmers Guide to the STL Mark Nelson, IDG Books, ISBN 1-56884-314-3.
  A recent review on the STL list (this isn't an OWL question, is it?) basically said that they had put off buying this book because it was PC/Windows oriented -- and, having finally bought and read it, regret having put it off. If it can get that kind of review from a UNIX bigot, it should be wonderful.