8 replies to this topic

[John]

Hello, being that in a few months im going to be starting college, going for my computer science major, i've decided to delv into the world of windows based programing, as im sure it will come in handy. i have 4 years of experience of working with php so programing isnt new to me.

but i was wondering if anyone could offer any advice reguarding books i should buy, software to use ect...

[Lop]

Here is a thread about C++ books

http://forum.codecal...18-books-c.html

[John]

Jordan said:

If you are doing Windows Applications I would suggest Managed C++ in VS2005.

I have Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003....i have no idea what the .NET is but is there a big difference between that and VS2005? lol

[brackett]

VS2003 targets the .NET 1.1 runtime (the managed framework...think Microsoft's Java runtime more or less), VS2005 targets .NET 2.0. Both .NET 2.0 and VS2005, natch, have a lot of new features. I'd suggest starting with them. Especially with C++, as I believe only VS2005 supports the newer C++/CLI syntax.

You can get Visual C++/C#/VB.NET/Web Express for free, or if you can get an educational discount, VS2005 Standard should only set you back around $60 or so.

Unlike Jordan, I'd suggest starting in C# instead of C++ (yes, I realize this is the C/C++ forum). Especially coming from a scripting language like PHP (which is similar to a managed environment), I think C# would be an easier move. The syntax is very C (and therefore PHP) like, and it's a lot cleaner than even the new C++/CLI syntax (and loads more than the older Managed C++ syntax in VS2003). Unless you *need* unmanaged code, are an old C/C++ hack, or just enjoy torturing yourself - I see no need to jump into C++ these days.

[John]

well again im really clueless as to what im talking about...but i kind of lied about JUST starting. about a year ago i did buy the book C++ for Dummies, i read the first few chapters and i feel confident working with variables, mathamatical functions, logical operations, loops, functions ect... but all the input and output is done in the ugly dos prompt. ive been using bloodshed dev C++, its a great compiler and editor. but i guess i want to move into more OOP with a sexy windows interface. and thats what im clueless about.

im sure there are easier programing languages to do what i want such as VB (which i did program in for a few months) or C# (which i never looked into much). but from my understanding C++ is the most versitle, most widly used, and most 'elite' so to speak

[husky44]

Personally I would skip C++ altogether and go with C#, only because it seems to be the way things are heading with Microsoft now as far as applications AND web development goes.
You can do web dev in C# too which makes it versatile.

[WingedPanther]

One of the things I've been looking at lately is the various GUI libraries that are out there. Qt, wxWidgets, GTK+, FLTK, FOX, and SmartWin all look good. Being a bit of a snob, I'm hoping I can find one that is cross-platform and remains basicly class-based. I've been reading up on Delphi and have been noticing how both it and Java's Swing library do a nice job of using classes to handle events without resorting to "ugly" mechanisms like macros and weird additional compilation techniques.

Out of curiousity, has anyone else looked at any of these? Since I'm a cheapskate (read poor), I'm not going to spring for VS anything right now.

[Lop]

husky44 said:

Personally I would skip C++ altogether and go with C#, only because it seems to be the way things are heading with Microsoft now as far as applications AND web development goes.
You can do web dev in C# too which makes it versatile.

Actually, this couldn't be further from the truth. Microsoft has announced that they still headline C++ as their main lanaguage for VS. There is actually a thread somewhere on here about it.