Hello. I'm a total noob to C++ and MFC, I've been teaching myself from books and it's not going too well. I've been asked to create a test application for a controller. The controller consists of six joysticks connected to a digital I/O board that's connected via USB.

I managed to write C++ code for it that simply outputs whether or not a joystick was pushed to the command line but my supervisor (I'm a student on work term) has asked that it been MFC instead.

This is my C++ code, I realize it's probably breaking every programming practice ever, I'm used to working with Java and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around classes in C++ and therefore opted not to use them. So this is basically a big ol 'what can I do to make it work' sort of deal. Not exactly elegant coding.

What I would like to do it translate this basic idea into MFC but I'm not really sure how to start. Not sure if it should be a dialog application or SDI or if I should use timers, or threads or what have you. I'm really just overwhelmed by the whole thing and I'm not ever sure I could convey that to my supervisor properly.

Any help would be great. Thanks.

ETA: Perhaps also relevant :D I'm using Visual Studio 2008 on windows XP. It's also my first foray into Visual Studio.

ETA2: Also relevant! What'd I need this program to do. It needs to continuously read the digital board and when the value changes from 0 to 1 it needs to output that value to the display. Or some indication that the value has changed.

#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>
#include <C:\Program Files\Measurement Computing\DAQ\C\cbw.h>
using namespace std;



int main()
{
	int BoardNum = 0;
	int PortNum = FIRSTPORTA;
	int PortType = FIRSTPORTA;
	int Direction = DIGITALIN;
	USHORT BitValue;
	USHORT bitValue = 0;
	int LastCase = 0;

	int BitNum = 0;
	cout << "Configuring Ports, please wait!\n";

	/*CONFIGURES PORTS AS INPUT ON ALL BOARDS*/
	for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
	{
		if(BoardNum < 2)
		{
			cbDConfigPort(BoardNum, PortNum, Direction);
			PortNum++;
			if(i == 3)
			{
				BoardNum++;
				PortNum = FIRSTPORTA;
			}
		}
	}

	/*LED OUTPUTS ON PORT B*/
	cbDConfigPort(1,FIRSTPORTB, DIGITALOUT);

	/*LINK LED IS ON WHEN USB IS CONNECTED*/
	cbDBitOut(1, FIRSTPORTA, 9, 1);
	cout << "Link LED!!\n";
	cout << "\n";

	/*LOOPS THROUGH AND DISPLAYS RESPONSES FROM BOARDS*/
	
	while(!_kbhit())
	{
		BoardNum = 0;
		for (BitNum = 0; BitNum < 24; BitNum++)
		{
                        //THIS IS THE CODE THAT READS THE DIGITAL PORTS ON THE BOARD
			cbDBitIn(0, FIRSTPORTA, BitNum, &BitValue);
		
			if(BitValue == 1)
			{
				cout << "BoardNum: " << BoardNum << "\n";
				cout << "Bit Num: " << BitNum << "\n";
				cout << "Joystick was pushed\n";
				cout << "\n";
			}
		
		}//END OF BOARD ZERO FOR LOOP

		//THE SECOND DIGITAL BOARD CONTROLS POWER SWITCHES AND LEDS
		for(BitNum = 0; BitNum < 8; BitNum++)
		{
			BoardNum = 1;
			cbDBitIn(1, FIRSTPORTA, BitNum, &BitValue);
			switch(BitNum)
			{
			case 0:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					cout << "Board Num: " << BoardNum << "\n";
					cout << "Bit Num: " << BitNum << "\n";
					cout << "Switch is On!\n";
					cout << "\n";
					
				}
				break;
			case 1:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					
					cout << "Board Num: " << BoardNum << "\n";
					cout << "Bit Num: " << BitNum << "\n";
					cout << "Switch is On!\n";
					cout << "\n";
					
				}
				break;
			case 2:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					//if(LastCase == 2)
					//	break;
				//	else
					cbDBitOut(1, FIRSTPORTA, 8, 0);
					//LastCase = 2;
				}
				break;
			case 3:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
				//	if(LastCase == 3)
					//	break;
					//else
					cbDBitOut(1, FIRSTPORTA, 8, 1);
					//LastCase = 3;
				}
				break;
			case 4:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					//if(LastCase == 4)
				//		break;
				//	else
						cbDBitOut(1 , FIRSTPORTA, 8, 0);
					//	LastCase = 4;
				}
				break;
			case 5:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					//if(LastCase == 5)
					//	break;
					//else
					cbDBitOut(1 , FIRSTPORTA, 8, 1);
					//LastCase = 5;
				}
				break;
			
			case 6:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					
					cout << "Board Num: " << BoardNum << "\n";
					cout << "Bit Num: " << BitNum << "\n";
					cout << "Switch is On!\n";
					cout << "\n";
					
				}
				break;
			case 7:
				if(BitValue == 0)
				{
					
					cout << "Board Num: " << BoardNum << "\n";
					cout << "Bit Num: " << BitNum << "\n";
					cout << "Switch is On!\n";
					cout << "\n";
					
				}
				break;
			default: break;
			}
		
			
		}//END OF BOARD ONE FOR LOOP

	}//END OF WHILE LOOP
//TURNS OFF LED's
	cbDBitOut(1, FIRSTPORTA, 9, 0); 
	cbDBitOut(1, FIRSTPORTA, 8, 0);
}

MFC is just a set of classes and various helper functions to make interacting with the Win API easier. What do you want to do with the MFC classes that you're not doing already?

I was simply told that he would rather it in MFC. It's probably meant to be a learning experience for me, get some MFC under by belt from the work term. However I really hate dealing with wizards and half generated code. It reminds me of trying to work with Flex or Drupal which were evil... Mean while I'm still trying to wrap my head around pointers and we've added MFC to the mix...

Buy a second hand copy of Jeff Prosise's "Programming Windows 95 with MFC" from Amazon. Lowest one as I type is four cents plus postage. No wizards, just hand-crafted use of MFCs, with every line explained.

As for what to actually do with it; beats me. Maybe you could have a little bar of coloured blocks to indicate current LED status.

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