After Edding Members to Store Color and Element Mode subchaper there is gap in information before Defining Element and Color Types. Also there is no code for this chapter in download section.

Something must have ended up on the cutting room floor in Chapter 13.

For example pages 656 - 657 never clearly tell the reader that in order to actually draw the toolbar button one must go to the main Visual Studio toolbar, select "IMAGE" and then thumb through the pull down menu at "Tools" to find the necessary image editing tools.

Granted the author says "You'll probably want to use the editing buttons provided by the resource editor, which appear in the IDE application window and include:...". But interpreting that one sentence proved a rather time consuming bit of learning by discovery that wrecked the flow of the chapter.

For one I'd sure like to know more about how to correct mistakes. A single Visual Studio menu can unleash a torrent of code and force a gruesome game of hide-and-seek to unwind a miscue.

Some corrections, however, are simple once you know the secret handshake. For example, if you mess up a page 657 toolbar icon just drag it outside the resource editor's toolbar button area and the button no longer appears in your application. Apparently it does no harm to leave an unused ID_XXXXX floating around, although the clutter of unused IDs can be annoying to anal retentives like me.

The first 10 chapters are remarkably well written. Mr, Horton is practically clairvoyant in anticipating at least my questions. Those ten chapters alone are worth the price of admission for even an experienced C/C++ programmer.

However, this pilgrim does not feel so kindly towards this tome when it comes to gaining a workable introduction to Visual Studio 2013,

Things get rough starting with chapter 11 when Visual Studio 2013 is first introduced.

By chapter 14 it's hard not to get fed up with the hubris behind the "design" of Visual Studio 2013. Mr. Horton wisely suggests the reader enter the code themselves. There's a lot to be learned from a typo or unchecked box. At the same time it gets harder and harder to see how ferreting out all the unintended consequences of an error in Visual Studio won't ultimately squander any saved programming time. Perhaps that's what dimmed Mr. Horton's enthusiasm a bit -- it sure took a piece out of mine.