Hello everybody.

My names Markus and it's also my first post. I'm 21 years old, I have always enjoyed computing and well over a year ago I spent 6 months learning C++ which I throughly enjoyed. Unfortunately due to several commitments I was unable to continue learning, in the last 6 months I have spent my free time on web development, Photography, Photo-Editing and several other things. That was my introduction anyway!

I simply can't get C++ programming off my mind. Every single day I want to get back into it as although I spent 6 months learning it (initially purely from the internet, at which point I bought a book and used that as an aid) this as you will all probably know was only to a basic level. I'm well aware that it takes many years to even consider yourself as an expert and thats dependant on the individual, the time doesn't concern me.

My concern is: "Can I hope to become sufficient enough to complete real-life problems via C++ without going back into education?" Don't get me wrong I know the internet holds more knowledge than anyone can possible teach you but with regards to how people perceive the self-taught programmer? Not only that but perhaps more importantly the path you follow learning from internet searchs opposed to the structured path you follow in a teaching enviroment.

I simply cannot afford to go back into education. I'm happy to put in the hours and teach myself, I'm looking for advice from people that perhaps taught themselves or have in fact gone through the education system, whilst I would happily do this as a hobby - I'd like it to lead to a career even if that took 5-10 years. I am 100% certain that I want to be in the industry of creating with computing, whether C++ is the right choice.. I'm not sure, although I am sure that it's a brilliant start.

Finally, and I do thank you for reading this far.. My previous C++ experience was based in a command line enviroment, if anybody could give me a guide/link/list of what is generally considered to be the basic set of C++ topics to understand before moving onto anything more than command-line programs that would be great, even a list of goals to program that generally require you to have the knowledge required before proceeding.

I would appreciate any positive or negative advice. Links, or even goals.

Best Regards,

Markus.