This book gives a detailed discussion of the majority of classes present in Microsoft's application framework library and the tools provided by Visual C++ 6. The book starts with an introduction to Visual C++ 6 project workspace, settings, resources and wizards and finishes with ActiveX and Internet programming. This is not a beginner's book. It is designed for advanced developers. The book presumes that readers will have a very good understanding of C++ and Windows programming.

This is not a 'how to' book, but a reference text. Again, it is not very useful as a tutorial tool. It was not written for that purpose. Some subjects are covered very well, such as Document View Architecture and Dialogue based Applications and controls. Others, like Data Access and Multithreading, are covered somewhat weakly. In its favour, the chapters on OLE containers and servers are well written, with good simple exemplar material that is easy to follow.

Professional MFC with Visual C++ 6 is probably one of the first places I would go to for 'information'. It does not provide instant solutions to problems, but it is a very good place to start as a diagnostic vehicle. This book does not include a CD-ROM. Therefore, if you need the source code you need to download it from the publisher's website; this could be costly and time-consuming. In conclusion, this is a good, solid reference book on Microsoft Foundation Classes that contains useful pieces of information.