I have experience in a variety of languages (Java, Perl, C#, PHP, javascript, ansi-C for microprocessors, Objective-C and others), with Win32 programming not being an area I've done a lot of work in. Now part of my job entails maintaining a large Win32 codebase that stretches back 15 years and includes everything from C written originally for Win95 to MFC to COM to 64-bit code for Win7 to C++ using Boost and so on. If there's a variation on how to do something it's in there.
Are there any good Win32 C/C++ references that discuss both the proper way to do things today and give you a little sense of how things evolved? Something like this discussion of all the various boolean types, or how to approach the API monstrosity of simply copying a string.
I don't see my career heading too far down this path, but I do like to understand what I'm working with and I think this is an important part of programming history.
thanks,
Eric