5 replies to this topic

[Duane01]

Hey everyone I'm new to these forums and have some questions :P

I learned some VB when I was going to college and we were using a very old version of the programming enviroment. We also breifly used "Game maker" I think it was.

After I left college I thought I should learn a more usefull, more common programming language, like C++ or Java.... so I started teaching myself C++ from "teach yourself C++ in 21days", the second edition that come ups on Google. I finish most of that tutorial before stumbling across that there is a Sixth edition now or something? and thought to myself that the code in the tutorial I have been following is outdated?

So can you nice people point me in the direction of some solid up to date C++ tutorials? :)

I do plan on teaching myself Java as well at some point.

[Alexander]

Welcome to our forums!

I've heard good reviews by members here about the site LearnCPP: Learn C++ , it appears to have a structured tutorial process rather than jumping around.

As for the book you are reading, the programming language is very old (more mature books are out there) and can take many months or years to learn, I would recommend getting a feel for the language with tutorials and then buy yourself a good book on the language, a "Learn (insert language here) in (insert number here) (insert span here)" book is not really a great resource for programming.

If you scroll down the list of the "resources" sticky on this forum you will as too find links to great resources or books: http://forum.codecal...-resources.html

There are a lot of game engines for C++ if that is what you wish to end up trying, although Java has native GUI support and good memory management so you may want to look in to that for gaming, although that is just a suggestion and either are very valid choices.

[Duane01]

Thanks for your response I will be sure to take a look at that Learn C++ page right now! :P, it's not always easy to tutorials as you say that are structed, I've been looking at some tutorials and they just don't explain it enough.

I'm aware that C++ is an old language, but I would have thought that over time there have been changes to it and in the way people use it to be most productive and that's why I thought the tutorial I have been using was not so good, I've learnt a lot from it, but I don't know if the practices I've learnt are no good.

Game engines is something that I would like to try, you are correct there. If I wasn't on a Mac I would be playing around with UDK now :). I would like in the end to know both C++ and Java, but since I already have some knowledge of C++, I think I should continue with that for now.

[Alexander]

That sounds good, most books in that list should teach proper practises. The creator of the language Bjarne Stroustrup has a book too, to see how he does it. If at any time you feel something looks wrong you can ask here too, those questions are fun and easy for us :)

About new parts of the language, there are newer C++ standards such as C++0x (which apparently will not be published and finalized) will add some nice features to the language, although you've a lot of learning of basic C++ before you could even make use of these new features, so that is not the greatest worry for now, especially since they are not even supported by most compilers.

[Duane01]

Ok thank you, it's just hard to know which is the best books/tutorials to take :)

[Upstream]

I also recommend cplusplus.com - The C++ Resources Network wich covers the basics.