Writing a C program not only needs to be grammatically correct, the key is that your code should be easy enough to read and maintain. Now there are so many C language books, but the biggest difference of Practical C Programming, 3rd Edition lies in its emphasizing on the practical principle, i.e. introducing C language to readers in a concise and practical form.

About how hard it is on earth for learning MFC, this should vary from person to person. If you are experienced programmers started from the base Windows OS, you'd likely have been a member of programmers developing the MFC class libraries; on the contrary, if you just have learned few years of Windows programming, then you may have not any knowledge on the underlying system. In the latter case, you must have one book on your desk for reference anytime (every technology needs this). For MFC, it will be Programming Windows with MFC.

First of all, if you are curious why we still adhered to release this outdated version, just think that's only for a few guys or use environments that still need it - just want to develop a simple desktop tool for lower versions of Windows platforms quickly, for example. So, if its not for the purpose of learning the Programming Windows, Fifth Edition, you don't need it any more!

MinGW (formerly mingw32, short for Minimalist GNU for Window) is a minimalist free, open source and the most important, pretty darned good compiler for Windows application development using C/C++.

For beginners using Windows who are interested in the C/C++ language (anyway, you need to compile your C/C++ programs) or Linux embedded system development, the big headache is switching back and forth between Windows & Linux. Even you have to continuously reboot system in order to achieve the purpose, very troublesome. Cygwin just solved this problem.