Book Review

Windows for Pen Computing: Programmer’s Reference by Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Press, 336 pages, $24.95, ISBN 1-55615-469-0

For the past couple of years, Microsoft Corp. has been supplementing its software documentation with books published by Microsoft Press, the company’s own book publishing house. At one time, in fact, we heard that the plan was to provide all documentation distributed with software — language compilers, SDKs, and the like — electronically; those programmers who wanted hard copy documentation would have to buy it in book-form from Microsoft Press. Needless to say, developers squawked so loudly that MS backed down and continued shipping hard copy docs with the development systems. (The voluminous documentation for NT relies upon CD-ROM distribution.)

On one hand, Microsoft’s strategy wasn’t ill-founded. The hard copy documentation for the MS C/C++ 7.0 package, for instance, is several thousand pages long. Providing this much documentation to beta testers prior to the official release of the compiler was a major problem, as is shipping it to customers. On the other hand, software users (developers and end users) absolutely need enough documentation to get the job done. What’s a billionaire programmer to do?

All this brings us to Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing: Programmer’s Reference, a recently released book from Microsoft Press. The book is a comprehensive guide for PenWindows development for experienced Windows developers who are — or are thinking about — taking the step into pen-based computing. The Programmer’s Reference brings the disparate, yet fundamental, information found in the Windows 3.1 Software Development Kit (SDK) into a single 316-page book. Like most titles from Microsoft Press, the book is cleanly designed, nicely produced, and well-written (by Microsoft writers Terry Ward and Stephen Liffick).

The content is essential Pen-Windows. The first half of the book lays the groundwork for what programming with Windows 3.1 pen extensions is all about. This includes an overview of pen computing, a thorough discussion of the pen extension architecture and user interface components, a discussion of the recognition process, and how to handle ink. Highly useful is the discussion of the PENAPP application that’s included with the SDK.

The second half of the book is a reference-style presentation of the pen API. Each function (listed alphabetically) is described, along with its syntax, the module that contains the function, return values, modules that call the function, and comments. The second half also contains the pen structures, messages and constants, and guide to initialization files.

Whether or not you agree with Microsoft’s tact of requiring developers to pay handsomely for information they should be getting with the development system, it remains that the Programmer’s Reference is a must for anyone planning on Pen-Windows programming. There’s nothing like one-stop shopping when it comes to quick access to information, and therein lies the real value of this book for pen software developers.