Microsoft Visual J++ 6.0 Developer's Workshop (Microsoft Programming Series)

After taking a quick look at the Visual J++ 6 programming environment, this book jumps right in with building simple applications, showing off features such as forms, menus, and status bars that are part of most Windows applications. (The author goes even further with some material on HTML-based help systems and drag-and-drop support.) Next the book explains how to use basic Windows controls and the Windows Foundation Classes (WFC) used to encapsulate their functionality. Details on more advanced controls such as TreeView and ListView follow.

Instead of a comprehensive tour of every control and feature, the author concentrates on what you need to get started with Visual J++ right away and then gets into basic database programming, including grid controls. Later sections of the book focus on creating custom WFC controls. (Since Visual J++ manages the difficulty here, you can write WFC controls without mastering the details of ActiveX.)

The final chapter presents a very useful case study for an inventory database for an online book company. --Richard Dragan