Learning C++


Garrett

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Can anyone recommend some good interactive software, books or online resources for a complete beginner..?


Thanks.
 
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There are plenty of software, books, and online resources for C++ out there....but I'm wondering why as a complete beginner you want to start with C++ ? Is there specific reason?


Not that it's not a great language to learn, but it is quite a challenge for most people to learn, especially as a beginner. You might want to consider starting with something like Python and see how it goes for you....at some point, if you still see the need for C++, then start studying it and it will likely be easier for you, as you've already learned the basic concepts about programming...


This is one of those topics, like politics and religion, where everyone tends to have a strong opinion and a different one...so, would not be surprised if someone else replies telling you to start with C++.... ;)


In any event, the other thing I'll mention as someone who has tried to teach himself programming the past few years, there is a lot to learn about it...and will take some time and studying/practice in order to get very far with it.


Also, I think that learning styles vary a lot, so, what might be good for me, might not be as useful for you....for example, with books, I find the best thing is to go to a bookstore such as B&N and browse the programming section and see which books and their approach seem to click with you.


Some books emphasize learning the language piece by piece and leave it up to you to put it all together as to how make a program.


Some books have a more tutorial approach of using exercises of building parts of a program to teach you various concepts along the way. At the end, you may put all the parts together to make an entire program of some kind.


You'll probably find a similar thing with online learning resources or software learning programs.


My guess is that a combination of some good books plus some online learning or interactive software is the way to go....


I have no doubt that the best approach would be to take some courses if possible where you have a chance to have in person communication. However, I have not been able to do that myself for various reasons...


Here's one place that has lots of online courses you might want to explore:


http://www.udemy.com


Hope this helps a bit...
 
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btw. for a complete beginner i recomend You to try Gambas3 [its super-easy to learn, and it is quite fast with excellent drag-and-drop IDE for GUI creation] instead of C++
 
At my university, the first year programming lecturer (tosser) created his own programming language, based on java. He calls is MASH. It was p*** easy to learn, and as much of an arogant fool as he is, he did a good job of teaching it, and it definitely helped with learniing java the next semester. Java is a good language, but next on my list is C++(they're teaching us C & objective C atm -.-). I would try and learn the basics in another language before trying to learn anything else.


That being said, if you feel like you're up to it and pickup things very easily, by all means, go ahead and learn C++. Anything you learn using C++ will help you with whatever language you learn, and it will only get easier from there. The basics are essentially the same in almost all languages (don't flame I said essentially!). Smash out a few console programs dealing with numbers and then work your way up from there.


On learning styles, i find that I don't learn very well from reading a book, but have a better response from it being "taught" to me, in a lecture type style. Not everyone is the same, as you can tell by half the class not turning up half way through the semester (because they're too 'pro' or cbf, either or). You will find whatever style suits you best.


Let us know if you find anything exceptionally good that hasn't been mentioned here. I'd be keen to stick it in one of my notebooks for future reference.
 
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