From: "A.Appleyard" <A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs2 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk>
To: DJGPP AT SUN DOT SOE DOT CLARKSON DOT EDU
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 10:58:46 BST
Subject: C/C++ programming for Windows

  Re C or C++ programming for Windows (i.e. making windows & boxes, not merely
running in a DOS box within Windows:-
  I recently bought Microsoft Visual C++, which is a package to program in C++
for Windows, but it, or the way its manuals describe it, is nightmarishly
complicated.
  (0) What (if any) is the email group for Visual C++ users & programmers?
  (1) A big book about interrupts that I have lists Windows interrupts 0x2e,
0x2f, and `AX=0x0204, int 0x6f'. (It says that these conflict with Novell
Netware and 10Net, which explains some mysteries.) What would happen if I
called these interrupts (a) under the present djgpp, (b) under djgpp 2, to try
to write a Windows application from scratch?
  (2) When talking about interrupts, what is an API?
  (3) Is there anywhere a C or C++ package to use Windows, which is easier to
use than Visual C++?
  (4) The Windows interrupts handle virtual machines and device drivers and
API entry points etc, but don't seem to actually draw text or boxes on the
screen. From the look of the matter that came with Visual C++, drawing window
boxes, text, control bars, etc seem to be done not by Windows itself but by
each program that Windows calls.