On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Tyler Littlefield <[email protected]> wrote: > you ever worked with any type of API? > Telling all new programmers that they *shouldn't use pointers* is abserd, > especially if the windows API takes 10000 pointers per function, as with > other APIs.
Yes, I worked extensively with the Win32 API, and not for hobby projects but real world applications. It is indeed a streaming pile of you-know-what, and besides, it is a C API, NOT C++. I still uphold that pointers are not meant for beginners, and they should avoid them until they're ready. There are a whole bunch of things to understand when you begin programming, pointers just add confusion. Also, beginners should learn the core language first, and they should only start with APIs when they're comfortable with the basics. Even then I wouldn't recommend the Win32 API, there are far better cross-platform toolkits (I prefer Qt, but there are others). -- Tamas Marki
