From: "John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Foundation Class help needed
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 19:33:24 -0800
Organization: Three pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt
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Message-ID: <32ACDA04.26B5@cs.com>
References: <32AC434D DOT 73F4 AT nortel DOT ca>
Reply-To: fighteer AT cs DOT com
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To: Ian Chapman <ichapman AT nortel DOT ca>
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Ian Chapman wrote:
> 
> I'm starting to look at this subject.  On the commercial side there is
> OWL and MFC.  On the dj side there seems to be sword and tvision.
> There are also a few others that I've pulled off the web.  They all
> have one common feature ... I get stuck.  The header files depending
> on which one I pick have so many basic typos that I'm certain to be
> missing a BASIC step.  Also I do not know what I'm doing which does
> not help.

Are you saying that the header files are buggy, or that the
documentation and comments are badly written?  If the latter, then you
really don't have any recourse except to talk to the developer of the
library or try to find additional documentation on the net.  Or find
somebody who does understand the instructions and get him to "translate"
them for you.  :)

>      What is the best to start with on the dj side tvison or sword?  I
> guess I need a cook book to boot me in the right direction so that I
> can pick up on the subject.

Hard to say, as I haven't used either.  ;)

>      Another point that has me really messed up is make files.  There
> is in the dj package a make and this is to do with generation of
> documentation (*.inf).  There seems to be something else even more
> mysterious lurking in the wood work called make for doing not at all
> sure what once I get into MFC type subject.

Make is a program that is designed to help programmers build complex
projects with simple commands.  It does this by means of a "makefile"
that contains "rules" specifying how to build or create each file or
group of files that the project requires.  It isn't necessarily limited
to specific languages or programs, although it is generally oriented
towards C.

If you got the 'v2gnu/mak375b.zip' file from the DJGPP distribution,
then the documentation for Make should be present in the /info
subdirectory of your installation.  Just type "info make" to read it. 
If you don't have Info, it's the hypertext documentation reader for the
DJGPP docs, and can be found in the file 'v2gnu/txi390b.zip'.  I can
send you some well-documented sample makefiles for C programs if you
want to explore the subject further.

Good luck!

-- 
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