16 replies to this topic

[HapHazard]

So right now I am in a class and we are learning c++ via visual studio. The class has been modified to help with the fact people these days are more visual learners. We are using windows form applications to set up our interface and click events and so on. So it's really just easy drag and drop. I was wondering what I should be concerned about not learning in this way of programming because we have not needed cout and a lot of the other things I have seen in the programming around here. Thanks in advance.

P.S. If you have any more questions about programs we are writing or in the class in general, I will provide more info.

[KeilanS]

You're going to want to wait for one of the professional coders here, but honestly I think what you're doing is an introduction to programming at best.

In my experience, the more user friendly something is, the less powerful it is. So if your code is done through drag and drop methods, you won't learn the full range of tricks a programmer should have.

I don't think your course will be harmful, but at some point you will want to learn to write raw code. Because well... if you don't know cout, then I'm not sure what kind of code you DO know. That's the first thing I was taught.

[Steve.L]

An introduction to C++ as a first language should teach nearly everything covered on this page. If you're only doing visual-related "programming" then it's honestly a waste of time, because you'll never use such methods in practice.

I do mostly agree with KeilanS in that the more user-friendly - or in programming terms, "higher level" - a language is, the less detail you can go into. Programming via drag-and-drop is about as high as you can go, whereas assembly code would be the lowest you would go in practical terms, because no sane person codes in binary.

[Aereshaa]

According to legend there was a sane person who did just that, even as late as circa 1975.

[HapHazard]

It looks like I get to about half way through the stuff that should be in a class. But there is a second class, but after that second class what would I learn? And its not like I am not learning the important stuff. Like we start out with hello world but the code looks a little more like this.

A bunch of Pregenerated code.
Pregenerated click event
{
      textBox1->Text = "Hello World";
}

So that was practically our first project. I thought it was a bit light, but as we went on we went through variables, data structures, control structures, and now we are on arrays. I think I understand the key issues but I could be totally wrong. I know that I am not going to learn how to design an interface from code I write, but there are better things written by a computer. But if you guys could give me more of examples of things that I won't run across from this approach to programming it would be awesome. Thanks.

[LukeyJ]

I think the main difference is that rather that your output being straight to a console screen, it is Windows program driven, probably managed C++.

You should still learn a fair bit of what you need to, but to truly understand the language, it's probably best to do a bit of testing to see what a basic console program entails because when you can do that, you can spot the differences and better understand the language.

What you are learning is operating system specific, it's still heavily C++, just the way the compiler uses the output is different. Rather than communicating with the hardware directly, you are using a framework to use manage your output.

[Steve.L]

So if I were to ask you to code a very simple binary tree implementation, since you've covered data structures and should know what a binary tree is, would you be able to do it?

[LukeyJ]

Steve.L said:

So if I were to ask you to code a very simple binary tree implementation, since you've covered data structures and should know what a binary tree is, would you be able to do it?

Who is this point addressed to?

[Aereshaa]

Probably to the OP.

[Steve.L]

Dur. Common sense is not so common around here.

[HapHazard]

Sorry for not being more specific with data structures, but so far only primitive structures, and I guess you would imagine I would learn pointers first, which I didn't mention, but if you were to give a time when I would learn about binary trees, when would it be, in an intro class, my second class, or etc. I think that would give me a good idea at what I might miss out on since the book makes no mention to binary trees, but this is my first semester. And thanks for the help and I think I will start on some basic projects outside of school.

[redkid]

Referring to the first post:
It's true that you'll not learn the real programming as it should be. I can tell you so from personal experience.

Back in grade 7 we used be taught VB and Access. It was a breeze for me and I wondered if programming was in fact this easy (having heard so many tales of Unix and all). But later on when I wanted to do one thing or the other VBs limitations showed up and as a coder you can not let a program be your limitation (that's my belief).

Follow the link Steve.L posted and learn everything in it. You'll be able to see the intricate nature of programming from a closer perspective and be able to manipulate to your desire.

Also I don't quite agree that any thing with a GUI is a step away from good programming. For example xCode, it's GUI is the best I've seen so far but it's just as great for writing C as is for building interfaces.

It's great that you'll start learning C by urself, it's the best way in my opinion, but of course that does bring up a lack of guidance when going to advanced levels (as I found out), but i guess you can always bug us or your professor. :P

Good luck!

PS: I am not an expert or anything. I am still learning my trade.