Learning C++

KiTBoH said:
I was thinking of learning C++ for the benefits it would have in just being able to make simple programs.

Java was always a possibility because of how useful it would be in webdesign aspect.
I suppose my end goal would be being able to make a working website using html, css and java.
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If you want to make a working website you are MUCH better of learning LAMP. Linux,Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PhP
 
sniffy said:
Don't confuse Java with JavaScript.

Java would be run in a desktop environment whereas JavaScript is deployed in a web environment :)

Choose which road you wish to go down because they're quite different.
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Java can be used in the same manner as PHP, Ruby on Rails or ASP.NET etc through the use of Servlets (and likely a framework, Tapestry, Seam, Struts, etc) and something like Tomcat or Jetty to run it...

Don't mean to be confusing but its still a language you can use to do the backend logic of a website.
 
C is supposed to be recommended as a starter language. I watched some tutorials on youtube, and followed them all quite nicely. I donwloaded netbeans and thought "I'll have a bash at this" and couldn't even get past which files to include (the #include part). Help files sucked and I had no idea where to turn.
 
Pulseammo said:
Java can be used in the same manner as PHP, Ruby on Rails or ASP.NET etc through the use of Servlets (and likely a framework, Tapestry, Seam, Struts, etc) and something like Tomcat or Jetty to run it...

Don't mean to be confusing but its still a language you can use to do the backend logic of a website.
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Oh right. That's very cool!

Excuse my ignorance, only just completed my 1st year as a CS student.

KiTBoH said:
...Oh yeah... :P

I have a tutorial for java that details the very basic things. I will use that and see how I fare,

thanks for all the advice :)
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Good luck with it. If you enjoy it and want to learn more about Java, I highly recommend the book "Objects first with Java". It was written by my university lecturers for OO programming and it's amazing how well they explain things. It's used in a lot of universities and the BlueJ IDE that comes with it is used throughout the world. From the start it hides massive aspects of the language so not to confuse the reader. I'm pretty confident my 13 year old sister, who has no interest in computers, could read this book and learn the fundamentals of coding Java.
 
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If you're set on C++ try following this very popular videos on Youtube. The Absolute Noob Spoonfed guide. He speaks a bit soft and with an accent but you very soon get used to it. It never bothered me from the start but just mentioning as some people seem to get funny about these sort of things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVhn0FWWB4

I'm a hobbyist C-sharp programmer and decided to get stuck into C++ to see what the fuss is all about. Just be warned that this tutorials truly assume you're a helpless **** that have never written any code. There is around 60 videos all together. If you cannot keep up with those videos, you probably won't be able to ever write anything more complex than 'Hello World' or a few 'If' statements. Also a word of warning, if you have any idea about programming, you will find the first 15 videos or so boring as he brings everyone up to speed. From there is gets mildly interesting until you hit the mid 40's where the REALLY cool stuff starts.
By the end of it you should have a solid grasp of C++ and be able to start writing your own applications which you can increase in size and complexity as you get more comfortable with the language. For type of silly applications I do, I still prefer C#.
 
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steve-h said:
how is it?

what do you get taught etc, it's something im interested in maybe doing next year.
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The first year wasn't particularly interesting, but we didn't really cover anything complex. It's basically all about searching computers to find incriminating evidence and covers quite a lot of the law involved with doing that.
At our uni there are a few modules that are put in just to fill time, though, like one to teach us databases.
I'm pretty happy with it, though, and from what we've been told it'll get a lot more in depth in the second and third years, the first was just to get us up to speed on computers and the basics of the legal system.
 
I'd use C++ as a easier c rather go straight into complicated c++. Just doing simple input in c can result in writing a data structure that can expand like a linked list or reallocating or copying arrays over to each other. You would just use a vector in c++. Then you get into complicated c++ with templates and page long complier errors etc.

Persnally i'd just go with python which can be used as a simple procedual language.
 
Trying to learn C or C++ as a first language is a bad idea, imo. I'd personally recommend C# as it's high level enough to be easy to pick-up, but syntactically similar to C/C++ so they should be easier to learn at a later stage. If you want to build small Windows Apps, C# is the way to go... don't even consider C++ (unless you're happy outputting to the command line). You could try Managed C++, I guess though.
 
If you really want to get into object-oriented programming then you can't go wrong with either C# or Java, they both have a similar syntax and workings. C# makes it easier to do windows things as you have the whole .NET framework behind it but Java is still a good choice and is becoming more popular, especially amongst open source projects.

Whilst object-oriented PHP5 shares a similar syntax to C#/Java it's not the best language to learn in as it's sort of a hybrid language where you can slip into procedural or OOP as you wish. This can make it harder to learn, Java and C# are a lot more strict and are also strongly typed languages.
 
wush said:
You're insane :p

It (C++/CLI) solves a problem well, but is a total mongrel. I can't think of much more confusing domain for someone starting out..
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I've never tried it myself, I've just 'heard' that certain aspects are easier to accomplish in MC++, so maybe it was a bad idea recommending it :p.
 
As an IDE you can get the Microsoft Express edition of their IDE's for free. Plus there is a lot of help information available on C# by just googling it. Also it uses a lot of similar methods as VB but just a different syntax so you would be used to the general layout of MS IDE's from VB, some coding practices and the GUI designer which is regarded as the best GUI designer available.

Also if you are feeling a bit too eager then you can dl the XNA game studio extension for C# and try your hand at programming a simple game, compile it and send it to your xbox to try it out!!! all for free.

Not that i love microsoft or anything its just a good selection of IDE's really with the only disadvantage being its MS exclusive unlike Java and C/C++.
 
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