Hello all, im starting my computer networking degree at uni in october and it does have some C++ moduels but not that much. I want to learn C++ in my spare time at uni because I think it will greatly benefit me later down the line when I try to get a job.

I have looked at the source code some programs written in C++ before such as tic tac toe game and a keylogger and I just think "how will I ever learn what this crap means" lol.

I dont see how its possible to remember so much syntax and remembering when it would be used and why.

I would like to know from you professionals did you literally learn by doing these small tutorials and then thinking "Let me see if I can do this or change that and see what happens"

Downloading open source programs, reading them, changing them and getting them to do slightly different things?


I really want to learn but I think the most important thing is finding a good book or online website because if im learning stuff but not really making a program then ill lose intrest fast. What do you recomend?

Thanks guys.

Thnx hayabusa. How long roughly from when you first made your hello world program or picked up your first book to you make a meaninful program that actually had a purpose?

Can you tell me what this program was please. Sorry for all the questions.

For the new coder with no experience, the "hello world" tutorials will certainly show you the construct of programming, and how to accomplish tasks in the language you've chosen.  I find that that gets boring after a while.  And when you start getting in to other languages, you're going to find that things like, oh, an array is an array, a variable is a variable, etc, regardless if it's perl or php.  You might be able to work with the array differently with the languages, but it's all the same in theory.

The best way I've found to learn programming is to have a goal in mind.  You want to write something to parse some flat-file DB info, you want to scan stuff, whatever.  I find if I have a goal in mind, I can start coding toward that goal, and as I need help, then I'll refer to online references or programming books.  As opposed to just going page by page through a book (boring), and coding in the "hello world" examples (boring), I find working towards a specific goal is much more invigorating, more brain power required, and by being faced with challenges/problems, you're more apt to remember what you learn as you work through the discovery/problem solving steps.

My two pennies worth, anyway...

I took one programming course years ago, Intro to Computer Programming. The language was VB.NET, and since I already had a job programming, it was mostly useless to me. However, every time I try a new programming language, I still run through the exercises we did in that class, even though they were pretty basic.

I would recommend finding a set of programming exercises, maybe in an old text book, and see if you can perform them in the new language. The reason it helps so much is that the exercise is giving you a goal, and they usually won't take that long. Since my old programming book is VB.NET, the code examples are irrelevant if I'm using a new language, like Python or C++. This is also a good thing, because it will force me to start looking for things on Google, instead of handing me all the answers if I get stuck.

Thanks 3xban, I heard python is great for new comers but I dont want to confuse myself with learning python just yet because my uni course had some programming modules but there all C++

I did some C++ before and learnt about if statements, functions, classes and some other stuff but didnt really understand what it was doing, I was just typing out what I saw on the youtube videos

This was about 4 years ago so I have forgotten it all but im sure it will come back to me. I may give python a shot though.