Learning to use Microsoft Visual C++

[Paul McKenzie]

I have done that! (The books have been fairly useless so far....)

The reason I want one that does games (coin flip would be a good place to start - GetRND?) is because they seem to be the only ones worth having.

Learning C++ means you know how to use the language properly, know when to make the correct decisions to use a certain programming concept, etc. In a game, business program, or any non-trivial program, you need to decide what structures, paradigms, design patterns, etc. to use. That is what those "boring" books are trying to teach you.

Do you use a linked list, a deque, or a vector? Do you use templates or just dynamic binding? I could go on and on with the decisions that C++ programmers, regardless of what field they're in, have to make when they are writing a program.

If you want an example, there are many posters that ask questions here, and they are writing somewhat complex MFC program. The problem is that these posters used wizards to generate the code, and have very little knowledge of real C++ to take them any further. So what winds up happening is that they're asking chapter 1 or chapter 2 C++ questions, while trying to write a complex GUI-based program. That is a recipe for disaster.

If you get a book on game design and C++, and it isn't for beginners, you will see the same constructs that the "boring" books were trying to teach you -- the problem now is that those non-beginner books assume you know the language already, and not just a cursory knowledge of the C++ language, but a very broad one. You will then be thumbing through the "boring" books to figure out what the heck that function or construct in the game programming book means.

Regards,

Paul McKenzie