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Learning C or C++?

CMOS

CMOS

CMOS

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11 Mar 2008
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310
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
hi,

I'am interested in learning programming. I' am in need of some advice and guidance if you will on what should i try to learn.

I know C is one of the earliest and C++ shortly after that. I would like advice on what should i go for and if you can could you please provide some information on where i could go about learning this.
 
What sort of applications are you looking at writing

Most people on here will tell you to learn C# .NET

I started with C++ and moved to C# .NET, I think if I hadn't learnt C++ first then I wouldn't have picked up .NET so easily
 
I have always had interest in games developing for the PC and just making PC applications.

I too have thought about starting from C++, just never knew where to start from really, I mean in downloading the right programs and starting out.
 
Get yourself a copy of Visual Studio Express from Microsoft, it is free

There are many sites on the web to teach you

I used www.cplusplus.com among others when I started out, found it quite useful

You may want to get yourself a book on the languauge you choose too so that it will teach you some of the theory if you haven't coded before
 
recommend any books? lol im headed off to waterstones to look for some, hope they have some.
 
In all honesty I would say that 90% of programming is being able to think a problem through and work out how to code it.

How you do this depends on the language and the facilities it offers, the main difference being if the language is object orientated or procedural.

If you have planned out your objects and your methods whether you code in PHP or C++ is not too different.

If you are learning then the debugging facilities will be vital. You could do far worse than visual studio express.
 
i've had a look at book valled visual basic 2008 would that help me at all in understanding programming at all i remeber doing some in secondery school.

The book teaches you about using vb 2008 but also the programming lingo and things like that pluss has all the software for easy set up
 
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If I was starting out I would get these books -

"Starting out with Programming logic and Design"
(kinda pricey see if you can get it used)

This is language agnostic and uses psudo code to teach basic programming principles.


"C programming A Modern Approach" or "C Primer Plus"

Good beginner C books

You can also get book recommendations here - http://cboard.cprogramming.com/
 
When learning programming it really helps to have a goal in mind.

One thing you might like to look at is openframeworks which is a set of libraries that can make it easier to get something interesting on your screen. Most C tutorials will be starting with a console application, but there is nothing like seeing something interesting on screen to motivate you.

I would recommend going for a standard set of C programming examples (look here for example http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html)
But then look at how you can make it a bit more interactive/interesting!
Implementing a stack? Then why not show it onscreen as a stack so that you can visualise what is going on.

Paul.
 
I agree with Paul. The problem with learning C or C++ is that you will have to do a lot of work to make anything fun, which will most likely lead to you giving up after getting bored.

I recommend beginners to look at a beginner language first and just get used to the problem solving aspect and not having to worry as much about the complexity of a native language. This doesn't have to be a long term thing, just a few weeks would help. I had some fun messing around with Microsoft's Small Basic, its a terrible language for anything other than learning but its simple, easy to use and there are a few good e books to start with. I haven't tried any other beginner language though so there maybe a better language so have a look around if you go this route.

Then once you have had a bit of fun then you could move up to C#, C/C++ or PHP. But as you mentioned games I would say look at C#, once you get over the basics then you can try out XNA which is a C# framework for games development. Games developed with C# can even run on Xbox 360, PC (ofc), windows phone 7 and the zune plus its easier and quicker than C++ games development. XNA will use fundamentally the same methods and similar API's to a C++ DirectX game dev framework would so it would just then be a case of getting used to C++.

Learning to program is not something you can do overnight, it will probably take you a few years to become a competent programmer (well it took me a while :p) plus you will never stop learning new things when it comes to programming. The best advise is not to give up or rush and skip stuff that you do not understand as this will likely lead you to just hitting a brick wall and quiting.

Oh and once you have been programming for a while don't think its necessary to reinvent the wheel, search for libraries and frameworks to help!

/essay
 
I would actually recommend starting with a more complex language (such as c++) as that's what I did, and I think it is much faster way of learning overall. Also it makes learning simpler languages a doddle.

I would go for c++ and not c as c++ is (imo) a much better and more usable language.

If you haven't got any books yet then I'd recommend Accelerated c++ as a first book. By far the best '1st' book I have seen. :)

Learning programming is a long process so don't expect fast results, but it's very interesting an rewarding so stick with it!
 
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