I've been programming GUI programs with the Win32 API for about a year in C++ now, but I've always used Dialog boxes (DlgProc and stuff).
Now I want to move on to making rich-UI programs. I have several questions :
- Are there any good tutorials/ebooks on MFC?
- How do I create "custom" controls such as those used in IDEs, Hex Editors, etc
- How can I, without using an edit control, record keyboard input without logging each key multiple times (or not at all?) i.e , if I set a timer and scanned the keys, say every 25ms, I'd either miss strokes or double add them. Is there a way using the API or MFC to avoid that?
MFC has been the C++ developers choice of UI integration, this book provides excellent MFC data and practical experiences:
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows-MFC-Second-Edition/dp/1572316950
There are many more books about MFC which are also excellent for beginners to expert level.
In MFC creating custom controls is difficult however there is HTML integration for MFC now, therefore if you know any of the scripting languages:
- HTML
- XAML
- Silverlight
- PHP
You can easily create those controls.
As for the second question, you can use Global Low-Level keyboard hooks. Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff468841(v=vs.85).aspx