Appendix C Margin Notes
General Note: Give yourself about an hour to complete this Appendix. Make sure that you have Visual C++ properly installed and configured.
Page 706. The author mentions the Catch-22 of having you complete a tutorial when you don't yet know the language. However, the university's choice of this textbook was made based on the inclusion of the Visual C++ compiler from Microsoft--so we attack it the first night of class.
Page 707. Hopefully, Visual C++ is installed in the computer lab---if not, you'll be doing this exercise at home.
Page 708. Store your files on a floppy, preferable in a folder easily identifiable. I name mine 'VCCFiles"
Page 710. Stop and smell the roses. Note the syntax highlighting---some words are in different colors!
Page 712. How do you execute a program? Ctrl+F5.
Page 714. Notice a missing semicolon always shows up as a syntax error on the line after the line missing the semicolon. Semicolons are big in C++. Many years ago one of my best students was asked how each line (or almost each line) in a C++ program ended. He forgot! He's now making lots of money as a consultant.
Page 715-720. This section on using the Debugger is probably something that you will find a bit boring at this point, and you may want to gloss over it.
Page 717. Ditto this section on finding logic errors using the Debugger. At this point, you don't know much about programming. It's going to be tough for you eyeball for logic errors.
Page 721. This section on using the Watch Window is pretty interesting, but you may want to gloss over it.
Page 722. Section C.3 is important. Pay attention--it will come in very handy when we get to Chapter 8. Whatever you do, don't type the code you see on Page 725 yourself---follow the instructions for including the code from your textbook's CD.
Page 725. Be sure NOT to type the code you see on this page yourself. Make your life easier by using the Insert Menu in Visual C++. By the way, can anyone explain to me how this game works?
Page 730. What a shame there is no drop-down Listbox for the Variable Type.
Page 731. Be sure the Acces type for the Member Functions are Public.
Page 732. I noticed a bug with the scrollbar in the window in Figure 20 in my version of C++---there wasn't one, so I had to 'arrow up' to see all of my code.
Page 733. Make sure, when entering code into the setLength() function that you type the lowercase letter 'L'---NOT the number ONE.
Page 734. Be sure to run your program using Ctrl+F5.
Page 735. The section on Visual C++ 6 Specific Comments is important---don't skip it, it will come in handy.