Here are some general ‘tips & tricks’ which proofed to be useful over the last years.
KISS: Keep It Simple and Stupid
Try to reduce the problem by building a sample application. With the new
‘
AppWizard
’
it does take less
than a minute to build a running MFC application! So whenever you encounter a problem or start programming
in a new area (like
‘
OLE automation
’
or
‘
owner drawed controls
’
) build a new test appliction. There you
can fool around and the rebuilds are fast!
Use the ‘Debug Windows’
There are 6 Debug Windows in the IDE aside from
‘
Variables
’
and
‘
Watch
’
the
‘
Call Stack
’
and the
‘
Memory
’
window are the ones I use the most.
If you set your breakpoints smart the
‘
Call Stack
’
will give you
a exellent view of when and where your methods are called and what paramter are used.
You don
’
t have to be an assembler wizard to make use of the
‘
Memory
’
Window. Most time I use
it to watch some values which are not shown completly in the
‘
Watch Window
’
Try the context menus on the
‘
Debug Windows
’
(right mouse click) they have some nice features!
Use all available resources
There are tons of useful information available. The one I use the most is the MSDN CD
(Microsoft Developer Network). These 2 CDs are published quarterly by Microsoft and contain a lot of
excellent examples and technical information.
You can search the same knowledge base on the web:
http://support.microsoft.com/support
. But sometimes it takes quite some time to get an search result
…
so I prefer the CDs!
To get more information about MSDN go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdn
There are a lot of other useful sites on the net, check them out. Many have a discussion board and free source!
Chances are good that somebody out there solved the same problem before. Don
’
t try to reinvent the world!
A good place to start is the
‘Links’ – pageon this site.
Read, read, read
There are many magazines and to many books regarding MFC/MSVC/Win32. Some of them are excellent and others
but a lot aren
’
t worth the paper! Check your local bookstore and those on the web!
(Maybe Zafir will setup a new section on this site with book reviews
…
)
To get the latest on debugging check John Robbins
‘
Bugslayer
’
- column in the
‘
Microsoft System Journal
’
at
http://www.microsoft.com/msj
He is an expert on debugging and he also shares tips in his column some of them you can find in this section.