C++?

lalee17

Hi all, I want to learn C++ as I've always been interested in computers. I'm just wondering if anybody can help as to where I can start learning it, without taking a course etc. Or is Perl an easier/more useful language?
Thanks:)
(Also, I'm on a mac if that makes any difference?)

deceit

Hope this helps
You can use this for free:
http://www.microsoft.co/express/vc/Default.aspx
You can use this pdf book for free.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc305129.aspx
The below site where recommended to me and seem really good also
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html
http://www.cplusplus.com/
http://cboard.cprogramming.com/

Zombrex

lalee17 wrote: »

Hi all, I want to learn C++ as I've always been interested in computers. I'm just wondering if anybody can help as to where I can start learning it, without taking a course etc. Or is Perl an easier/more useful language?
Thanks:)
(Also, I'm on a mac if that makes any difference?)

By a computer science book on C++ (ie one for college kids), that would be your best bet. The Deitel & Deitel series are good

Perl is a very different language to C++, and is used for different things.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

lalee17 wrote: »

Hi all, I want to learn C++ as I've always been interested in computers. I'm just wondering if anybody can help as to where I can start learning it, without taking a course etc. Or is Perl an easier/more useful language?
Thanks:)
(Also, I'm on a mac if that makes any difference?)

What do you want to do?
Give a few examples of things that you think would be cool to program, then you'd have a better idea of what language you'd want to learn.

One thing I'll say is, learning C++ would be significantly harder than Perl, but if you know C++, learning Perl would be fairly simple.

On a Mac, most GUI applications will be programmed using Cocoa, which is an Objective-C (similar to C++ in some senses) library. However, not many people outside the Mac community would know much about Objective-C so you would be limiting yourself a bit.

gagomes

I would recommend reading through these books, which the author sells and makes them available for free online:

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

They're serious books, but the author made them available.

docdolittle

Sorry to hijack a bit of your thread OP but..

I'm going to try to learn C++ for games design, Is it worth forking out €30-50 for a book, or am I just as well off with online content?

ronivek

I guess it depends what method you generally use for learning.

If you have a decent book you'll have a structured "course" if you like that you can follow along with appropriate exercises and online content to make sure you understand everything.

Some people like to take a trial and error approach and would rather play around with code snippets and examples that you can find all over the place online.

In my opinion it's not a good idea to go for the second approach unless you're an experienced programmer as you're less likely to gain a fundamental understanding of what it is your doing; whereas a good book will go to pains to point out the common misunderstandings and pitfalls.

For a pure beginner in programming I'd recommend something like the Deitel and Deitel books; but there are plenty of other cheaper options out there.

Martyr

ANYONE with basic mathematics knowledge is capable of programming.

Some guys on here think its a high skilled job.. :rolleyes:

Lab_Mouse

Yeah I'd recommend getting a book particularly one aimed at game programming.You will learn the parts of C++ needed for game programming.I got Learning C++ by making games(Thomson/Delmar training) and found it was good plus went well with online tutourials.
Just relise that you wont be programming half life 2 after a few weeks,let alone a 2D platformer.:D

I would also recommend Accelerated C++ which gives a very good course in generall c++.

At the OP: I have been told that Java is easier to learn programming but I just jumped into C++ and had few problems.Some of its ideas can take a while to wrap your head around but you will get an EUREKA moment!

If you programme pure C++ it is multiplatform as in it will run on windows/linux and mac's.

fasty

Martyr wrote: »

ANYONE with basic mathematics knowledge is capable of programming.

Some guys on here think its a high skilled job.. :rolleyes:

Don't be silly.

Genghiz Cohen

Martyr wrote: »

ANYONE with basic mathematics knowledge is capable of programming.

Some guys on here think its a high skilled job.. :rolleyes:

It takes far far more than just maths to be a good programmer.

docdolittle

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

It takes far far more than just maths to be a good programmer.

Yea, but he said capable of programming, he didn't say "good programmer" :P

Webmonkey

Martyr wrote:

ANYONE with basic mathematics knowledge is capable of programming.

Some guys on here think its a high skilled job.. :rolleyes:

You love creating arguments don't you. :rolleyes:

Programming may be easy for you, but the majority of people I see, find it difficult. How can you say anyone who can do basic maths should have no problems with programming. And if programming isn't a high skilled job, then what is? It takes years of experience to get good at programming.

Genghiz Cohen

docdolittle wrote: »

Yea, but he said capable of programming, he didn't say "good programmer" :P

The same way anyone with a knife can be a heart surgeon?

docdolittle

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

The same way anyone with a knife can be a heart surgeon?

Exactly!! :P jk

Oh I never said thank you to everyone for the advice I'll prob be going to easons tomo to find a decent book for C++ with games in mind I'll be broke after and have no money to do anything else but study :P

Webmonkey

Game programming is a good deal more difficult than normal programming. Well 3d gaming anyways. Best of luck in it - just understand your matrix maths :P

By the way, if you doing OpenGL programming, you'll be working with C really. The Red book is great. Search for it. It's free to view online. I've a PDF of it if you want me to email it to you.

Here you go: http://unreal.srk.fer.hr/theredbook/

fasty

Game programming and C++?

This book will give you a good foundation in the maths you need for computer graphics and it's pretty much platform independent.

For general C++... I guess Thinking in C++ or C++ - How to Program.

Anima

Theres always the Java route if you want to see results quicker. The JMonkey engine is quite impressive.

Both learning to program and then learning to do 3D stuff is a collossal amount of work btw. It'll take a few years to get anyway decent.

Genghiz Cohen

XNA Game Studio is free to download with DreamSpark.
You can get games up and running quite quickly with it.
Programs in C#, it's C++ with all the fun and unnecessarily dangerous bits removed.

docdolittle

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

XNA Game Studio is free to download with DreamSpark.
You can get games up and running quite quickly with it.
Programs in C#, it's C++ with all the fun and unnecessarily dangerous bits removed.

I wasn't too sure about about XNA tbh, I wanted to get at least the basics down on one programming language and try to improve, I'm guessing once you get the principles of programming down for one language, it can be mostly transfered over to the others. I'm just going to dive into C++ and hopefully learn something over the summer, try and at least get pong working with it XD :P