PlugIn development for beginners - questions

[Michael Zazula]

Hello,

 

After examining the ES plugin development posibilies I reached the conclusion that this feature is so great that it's worth to learn C++ for that purpose only Finally one day I will have to learn it, otherwise I will be similar to somoene who doesn't speak English and wants to fly abroad

 

However, due to my very limited knowledeg od C++ development enviroment, I can't understand one thing: the relation between MFC (Microsoft Foundation Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es) and ES plugin. Can someone help me please?

 

My basic question is: is it possible to develop a plug-in without having MFC (as far as I understand, MFC is quite expensive to buy)?

 

In EuroScope Plug In development manual I found:

It is up to you if you are using MFC in the plug-in or not.

 

However, when I follow the manual, I'm asked to include EuroScopePlugIn.h. When I do so, I start getting errors on compiling my plugin. There are several errors, but let's take the first one: my Visual C++ compliler doesn't like :

 

RECT GetRadarArea ( void ) ;

in the EuroScopePlugIn.h.

 

I've discovered that RECT is part of MFC and that's why I suppose it's not possible to develop a plug in withoud MFC.

 

Am I missing something?

 

Thanks in advance,

MJZ

[Ross Carlson]

That's probably referencing RECT as defined in the standard windows SDK. It's in Windef.h, which you can get by including Windows.h.

 

(I'm [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming that's the RECT that GetRadarArea() returns ... haven't actually tried it myself.)

[Gergely Csernak]

Ross is right. RECT is defined in the WinDef.h and it should not be part of MFC. There are plug-in developers who use the free express edition of VisualStudio. That has no MFC support.