API and .NET Framework

**yyy** · Nov 18th, 2003, 10:44 AM

hello programmers,

Is there any advanced book, article or reference talk about API's that NOT cover in .NET Framework?

**yyy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:26 PM

Just i want the name of any book discuss this subject

**persianboy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:30 PM

check this one out

.NET Framework Solutions: In Search of the Lost Win32 API

Click

**MrPolite** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by persianboy
check this one out

.NET Framework Solutions: In Search of the Lost Win32 API

Click

hmm seems like a very technical book, do you own a copy of it?

**persianboy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:37 PM

i got it from our universities library, havent opened it yet

**MrPolite** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:37 PM

Originally posted by persianboy
i got it from our universities library, havent opened it yet

hmm fun... which uni do you go to ?

**persianboy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:39 PM

American Univeristy in Dubai

**MrPolite** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:41 PM

Originally posted by persianboy
american univesity in dubai

aha fek kardam too irani hanooz

eeh I'm still in community college

bleh.
btw are you studying .NET on your own? because I've checked some of the courses at a uni that I plan to go (UCSD, it's pretty good.. it's in rank of UCLA and such, a bit lower maybe)... and they dont really want you to take .NET courses. I think you can just take them in addition to the requirements. hmm any uni's are actually requiring people to take .NET classes OR allowing to take a .NET class instead of a pre-requisit course?

**persianboy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:47 PM

we dont have any .net classes in our university , every thing has to do with C here (unfortunetly) , taking classes outside the uni is very expensive too, i'm just tring to learn from the net and i also bought the mcsd books.

its cool you guys have .net courses in your uni, are they all for free?!

**MrPolite** · Nov 19th, 2003, 01:50 PM

Originally posted by persianboy
we dont have any .net classes in our university , every thing has to do with C here (unfortunetly) , taking classes outside the uni is very expensive too, i'm just tring to learn from the net and i also bought the mcsd books.

its cool you guys have .net courses in your uni, are they all for free?!

well for a few cheap dollars, maybe umm $500

I think last time I checked was last year and there were like 2 C# courses and maybe a vb.net course? I cant really remember. I assume they offer more now

**yyy** · Nov 19th, 2003, 08:26 PM

persianboy
thanx for your help. I think it's very helpful book for me. but I also want another reference contains complete list for
functions that not included in .NET framework classes.

**MrPolite** · Nov 19th, 2003, 10:45 PM

Originally posted by yyy
persianboy
thanx for your help. I think it's very helpful book for me. but I also want another reference contains complete list for
functions that not included in .NET framework classes.

umm well you may hvae to find a non-.NET book. Maybe yuo can just convert the functinos to .NET yourself, it's not THAT hard....
besides, take a look at the API guide (http://www.mentalis.org/ ). It doesnt have all the APIs, but the list is big enough to keep you busy for a few years

it was for vb6 but you can easily convert the functions...

**yyy** · Nov 20th, 2003, 08:48 AM

MrPolite
Thank U. but that's not what I want. I have used API guide and ApiViewer (newer ver) before. and maybe I memorize few hundreds of functions from the first one

. also I have got good books for api like "Win32 API Programming with Visual Basic" and Dan Appleman's Guide.

but now I want to see the limitations of .NET Framework in all directions and when should I use win32 API. any good reference help me?

**crpietschmann** · Nov 21st, 2003, 11:41 AM

Microsoft doesn't promote using API calls in .NET applications. API's are unmanaged code. They want you to use only managed code. The reason for this is that eventually when the .NET Framework is available on different OS's your applicaiton will run on any of them.

Let me ask you this...
Would you use some code that would make youre Java app dependent on Windows? No, you wouldn't. Same with .NET

I know that there are certain things that you would need API's for. Coming from VB6, I noticed that there is ALOT of stuff that you can do with .NET (managed) code, that you used to only be able to do with API calls.

**nemaroller** · Nov 21st, 2003, 04:08 PM

Listen to the man from Wisconsin, he knows what he's talkin about.

**yyy** · Nov 23rd, 2003, 11:51 AM

crpietschmann
thanks for your imortants note. but I am not convinced with some points.

Microsoft doesn't promote using API calls in .NET applications. API's are unmanaged code. They want you to use only managed code. The reason for this is that eventually when the .NET Framework is available on different OS's your applicaiton will run on any of them.

We all know that each newer ver of OS's has new features. So, if we want to build full features classes library(like classes library in .NET Framework) that able to use on any platforms, we should do one of two things.
- build the classes library based on OS that have the least features.
- OR stop building new functions on newer OS.
and this two things is impossible.
.NET Framework contains some members based on new features in newer versions of windows And it just give warning to the programmer such as "this stuff only supported in Windows XP" or other similar warning. For example, the Opacity property that based on SetLayeredWindowAttributes function (that available only on Windows 2000 or later versions) is added on .NET Framework and the programmer must know that it isn't work on older versions like WinME.

Let me ask you this...
Would you use some code that would make youre Java app dependent on Windows? No, you wouldn't. Same with .NET

But that not help me. I do not want to program typical works. I want to work with OS in depth and use some advance technique in windows such as SubCalssing and Hooking and working with process and windows.
By the way, this problem will come bigger and bigger if we want to program using .NET Framework on linux and other OS's.

I know that there are certain things that you would need API's for. Coming from VB6, I noticed that there is ALOT of stuff that you can do with .NET (managed) code, that you used to only be able to do with API calls.

that's right, But also there are a lot of functions in windows that you can't use .NET Framework for access to.
Just for example, the windows control functions is almost disappear completely (FindWindowEx,GetWindow, GetWindowText, SetWindowPos, SetWindowLong .. etc)

for this reason, I want a complete reference help me to check if there is any substitute member on .NET Framework for the function that I search about.

**crpietschmann** · Nov 23rd, 2003, 10:08 PM

I didn't say that you should never use API calls, I just said that you should keep in mind that if you use Win32 API calls then you app would only run on a Win32 OS (Win2K and higher).

If you look at my site, I have some info on using API calls with VB.NET and C#. The URL is http://www.pietschsoft.com/functionguide

I also have another section that has The Windows API Guide which used to be at vbapi.com. The URL for that is http://www.pietschsoft.com/programming/vbapi

And, for new features being added to newer OS's, the .NET Framework is currently at version 1.1, and they will be adding new features in future versions. I beleive that the .NET Framwork version 2 is to be coming out with the release of Windows Longhorn in 2005. I also think they are coming out with another version of the .NET Framework when they release Visual Studio .NET 2004.

The .NET Framework is going to continue to evolve, and MS will never take away the ability to use Windows API calls. There are certain things that you just can't do with the .NET Framework without using API calls.

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