Hi, OK ive gotten hold of a copy of visual C++ 6 from work, and bought a book on basic C++ programming and have played around with a few of the tutorials and getting a better feel for the app. I have a question, what is the best method to begin writing source code within the visual C environment, the tutorials in the book have me more or less using the MFC app wizard, but i would like to know how the best way to go about setting a project up with my own code i.e. do I use a win32 console app, win 32 app? basically I want to paste code from the various threads on this forum into the visual C++ compliler and run them, right now I seem to have in my file view seperate code folders and header folders, is this the standard setup? or is there something else I should be doing?? Thanks, Gordon

Start with simple console applications, explore C++ (a bit, not the totally unnecessary advanced stuff) and move on to whatever thing you want to develop (games, apps). The adv C++ will come when they're needed.

You'll want to do Win32 console programs at first, so you'll be able to read and write text to/from a console window, much like the command interpreter in Windows.
Just forget about the MFC stuff for now. It's just going to confuse you if you're new to C++, and it isn't really useful for anything you'd be doing as a beginner.

After you get the hang of the basics (loops, pointers, functions, structures,etc) and want to move on to Windows programming, use the Windows API rather than MFC. It's easier to get the hang of, more related to games and less bloated with things you don't really need.

Of course you might want to buy your own copy of C++ instead of pirating one from work.

thanks for the feedback folks...started a simple win32 console project and its exactly what I was looking for...as for the pirating....im no pirate...arrrrr!!