Dear Visitor

This is my personal homepage. Here you can find my articles and tutorials about DirectX programming, a topic that I also covered in the book that I co-authored. The section about using DirectX with Borland C++Builder is also still extremely popular.

My personal interests have shifted somewhat towards Python programming, Open Source development, and Free Software. I have developed the mfGraph library, which can also be found on this site.

Yours,

(Michael Fötsch)

Updates

June 12, 2005
I have uploaded version 0.3 of the mfGraph package. This new version includes a GNU Automake-based build, various code fixes for GNU/Linux, a new MFC demo application for Microsoft Windows, bug fixes for the mfGraph UI Sample Application, and an all-new wxPython demo.

June 1, 2005
The new article GNU Automake By Example presents several simple Automake/Autoconf-based projects. No lengthy explanations--instead, I present a few examples that illustrate how to add Doxygen support, how to work with multiple subdirectories, how to use Libtool libraries, how to use KDevelop with Automake-based projects, etc.

May 27, 2005
In the article "Python Extensions In C++ Using SWIG", I described how to extend Python with C++ code. That article also contains instructions for building SWIG extension DLLs on Windows. A new article contains instructions for Building SWIG Python Extensions on GNU/Linux using GNU Automake and Autoconf.

May 8, 2005
A new article gives you an Introduction To New-Style Classes in Python. The article is very concise, yet gives you enough information so that you can start using the new language features. Examples are presented in place of long descriptions.

Oct 27, 2003
The Articles page now contains a Software Design section. The first (and, for the foreseeable future, the only) entry is an HTML presentation titled "Large-Scale Physical C++ Design," named after John Lakos' book on the same topic.

Oct 8, 2003
The mfGraph Library has been updated with "pymfg," an extension module for Python that lets you work with DOT graphs in your Python applications. More...

There is also a new article in the (new) Python section, Python Extensions In C++ Using SWIG, that describes how extension modules (such as "pymfg" mentioned above) are created.

Sep 21, 2003 (2)
The first alpha release of mfGraph goes online. mfGraph is an Open Source library (published under the LGPL) for working with graphs in the GraphViz DOT format. With mfGraph comes a GUI that serves both as a shell to DOT.EXE and as a point-and-click graph drawing tool with metafile output. More...

Sep 21, 2003 (1)
The "Blueprint Layout" has been replaced. The new layout is called "Layout03" because it's the third major revamp of this site and because it's the first new layout for the year '03.

May 7, 2001
I've uploaded a new tutorial that explains polygon triangulation and extrusion. The code uses OpenGL services to produce 3D text meshes for Direct3D 8. There's also some interesting information about calculating vertex normals for producing smooth edges. More...

Feb 24, 2001 (2)
I added a copy of my Mr GameMaker article "Taking Screenshots with Direct3D 8" to the DirectX area. The article comes with complete source code and a sample application. More...

Feb 24, 2001 (1)
The Windows 2000 Graphics API Black Book will soon be available. If you're serious about creating graphics-based applications for Microsoft Windows, check out the book's official web site. More...

Jan 11, 2001
At last: The Direct3DX Utility Library can be used with C++Builder! I've uploaded a ZIP file containing the OMF versions of all of the DirectX 8 LIB files. I've also wrapped up D3DX8.LIB in a VC++ DLL, so that D3DX can finally be used by Borland users. More...

Dec 18, 2000
It's time to get rid of the "Summertime Layout," which has been online since July 20. Although we haven't seen any snow yet, one thing is for sure--summer is over.