Advice on starting to learn C++ please. Absolute newbie.

[MikeinUK]

Hi all.

<Fx, stands before the audience and looks nervously around.>

"My name is Mike, this is my first ever post in this forum... and, and I'm a... newbie! Sob." There, I've said it.

And I'm unsure what direction to take to reach my goal. Can you give me some pointers please?

What is my goal? Initially to learn the basics of C++. Eventually, to help out my brother and write an app for the iPhone but thats a long way away. (My research so far is that iPhone programming is in C++ although I'm sure Apple will have made changes from the core specification. For now, forget the iPhone app, thats for the future.) Right now it's baby steps.

I have...
- A reasonably powerful home built PC running XP with all patches and updates.
- I do NOT have a pot of money to buy a Mac or spend on developers tools.
- I have Bjarne Stroustrup's book Principle and practice in C++.
- I have Microsofts C++ beginners guide in XPS format.
- I have a little experience with Delphi 5, all home taught from a book.
- I hope I have enthusiasm.
- I am downloading Visual Studio Express 2010 as I type.
- I work for the Borough Council as a low level manager to pay for my tea and biscuits, so there is no help there.

To learn C++ I was thinking of writing a very basic email program, just for the sake of it. This would include learning about user interface, data storeage and online connectivity. The latter in an already solid enviroment thats been debugged a millionfold.

What does the house reccomend as the most useful compiler to use to learn on please, that I can run on XP? Best books or courses? Best route to get the best practices in place right at the start? (Lot's of 'bests' there!). Perhaps I should learn C# instead of c++? So many choices but which one will waste the least amount of my time?

I would appreciate any help or guidance you can all give me in my new, mind expanding, profession! :)

Many thanks in advance

Mike.

[BenTheMan]

This is probably bit of the blind leading the blind, but let me give you my approach.

There is a pretty good no-nonsense book I've been reading called ``Learn C++ in an hour a day''. Probably the purists here hate it, but to be honest, it's a book that will get you up to speed on the modern intricacies of C++. It won't make you a good programmer, but you can get a lot of knowledge about C++ in about a month. When I say ``it won't make you a good programmer'', I mean that there's lots of short examples of how to do specific things, but you can only get good at something like programming with experience.

Aside from that, I'd try to mimic a C++ course---assign yourself a bunch of short programs and make them work, then do some bigger projects to give you more experience.

Finally, I'd try installing Linux on your computer, and dual booting. All of the programming stuff I've done in Linux is much easier than doing it on a mac or a pc. I'm using my mac now with Xcode, but mac has a GNU compiler, and I've never even tried compiling from anywhere else but the command prompt, which is what you do in Linux anyway. Ubuntu is a pretty good distribution, and about as easy to use as mac or windows anyway.

[DainXC]

Hello Mike,

For learning the very basics of C/C++, I recommend Bruce Eckel's book "Thinking in C++".
Like you, I am almost a complete newbie to these forms, C++, and programming in general. I feel this book is an excellent reference, if a little outdated.

Link: http://www.planetpdf.com/developer/article.asp?ContentID=6634



I wish you the best of luck learning C++!

-DainXC