From: "Gregg N" 

Frank Haber wrote:
> Thank you VERY much for taking that time.  My questions were
> dead-serious, except for that last SYMDEB one, which I threw in more
> to show how behind the curve I am than for anything else.
>
> I might actually try to debug something sometime.  Any suggestions
> for a starter PUT (program under test), and  how a fossil might begin
> to stagger backwards into the event-driven world?  Seen a tutorial
> anywhere?

Source-level debugging using WinDbg usually means using C or C++. You could
download the Windows Platform SDK and the Visual C++ Toolkit (both free).
In addition to libraries, header files, and documentation, the platform SDK
contains sample programs demonstrating the myriad facilities in Windows.
You could try to build and run these under the debugger. You will need an
editor that is programmer-friendly. You can download the excellent TextPad,
which supports syntax highlighting and error tracking for many different
languages and compilers. This is not free, but the trial version is fully
functional, and has no expiration.

Platform SDK:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/downlevel.htm

Visual C++ Toolkit:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/

TextPad:
http://www.textpad.com/products/textpad/index.html

If you prefer, you could use GNU-based tools such as gcc. There is a
Windows port called mingw that inludes windows-compatible headers and
libraries necessary to build Win32 applications. Unfortunately, it is
confusing to figure out what needs to be downloaded from this site. I think
you only need MinGW and MinSYS.

MinGW
http://www.mingw.org/

You could also download the free personal version of Borland C++ Builder.
http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_cbuilder.html

This would give you an IDE in which to work. Borland also has a debugger
called Turbo Debugger, but I have not used a debugger by this name in ten
or fifteen years.

Also consider browsing Usenet groups such as alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++

There are tutorials on the web but some use obsolete language dialects,
provide questionable programming advice, or include incorrect code. This
one, written by a regular of comp.lang.c++, appears to be reasonable:

http://home.no.net/dubjai/win32cpptut/html/

The ACCU (Association of C and C++ User's) web site www.accu.org

has some useful information about C and C++, and contains book reviews.
There is one rather prolific author of programming language books that you
might want to avoid. He is mentioned in the C/C++ faq:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/C-faq/learn/

Gregg

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