Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+
David Weller, Alexandre Santos Lobão, Ellen Hatton · Apress eBooks · 2004
DirectX refers to a collection of Microsoft-created APIs and technologies that help developers more directly access the hardware features of a computer. It was originally released in 1996 as a way for game programmers to access the graphics hardware without requiring the developer to switch out of Windows and into DOS mode. Starting in 2002, Microsoft released a version of DirectX that allowed developers to access the DirectX libraries using .NET languages (such as C#, Visual Basic.NET, and managed C++), which is commonly referred to as Managed DirectX (Microsoft and developers often use the acronym MDX). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.