Programming Win32 Under the API

About the Book Topic The MS Windows operating system is layered like an onion. Increasingly, programmers limit themselves to programming 'tools' such as COM or MFC that achieve program modifications at the superficial level of the Applications Programming Interface (API). This can create problems when one program is expected to operate successfully on another version of windows that may be located elsewhere in the network. In order to design an application that is robust (i.e. sure to work on alternate versions of Windows) the programmer must go beneath the API to develop the application to the common elements of the version that it is likely to run on. This level of programming requires a depth of understanding the OS beyond the routine. Book Description Windows programmers working with the popular 'tool' techniques of COM and MFC are often frustrated by the differences between versions of the operating system because they are masked by the Applications Programming Interface (API). This book takes the reader step-by-step into the Win32 operating system, examines the API and looks "under the hood" to demonstrate how to write applications that will run reliably across versions of Windows. The author compares the implementations of the API found in Windows 9x, Windows NT, and Windows 2000, then demonstrates how to design applications for each system, as well as applications capable of running on more than one of these systems.