From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 11 19:00:42 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 38F6E16A4CE for ; Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:00:42 -0800 (PST) Received: from adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net (adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net [68.76.19.75]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A631843F85 for ; Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:00:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from luke@foolishgames.com) Received: from [192.168.2.49] (adsl-67-36-58-31.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net [67.36.58.31]) (authenticated bits=0)ESMTP id hAC30axP021471; Tue, 11 Nov 2003 22:00:36 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from luke@foolishgames.com) X-Authentication-Warning: adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net: Host adsl-67-36-58-31.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net [67.36.58.31] claimed to be [192.168.2.49] In-Reply-To: <002c01c3a8c1$a4651bb0$6400a8c0@desktop> References: <002c01c3a8c1$a4651bb0$6400a8c0@desktop> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v606) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: <61F61906-14BC-11D8-913B-0030656DD690@foolishgames.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Lucas Holt Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 22:00:33 -0500 To: "Alex Kelly" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.606) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie: The C / C++ Issue X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 03:00:42 -0000 On Nov 11, 2003, at 9:06 PM, Alex Kelly wrote: > Thanks for all of the great suggestions to my previous question! > > Yet, the responses have led me to another question. If C++ is newer > and more advanced than C, will it replace C? If so, should I learn C++ > and forget C? > > Alex > _______________________________________________ > It hasn't yet. C++ and C are used by different types of people for different things. If you want to write applications in Windows or Unix environments, C++ will work great for you. If you want to write kernel level stuff, C would be the choice. If you want to write Mac OS X apps, Objective C is the answer (but C would work too with Carbon). A few more points: The C programming Language AKA K&R is partly authored by Dennis Ritchie. He wrote the language. That is THE book. Buy it and another book if you want to learn C. The C++ programming language is also written by the author of the language. Its a good reference, but you can't learn C++ with it. You need more books. I have the C++ o'rielly book and its good, but lacks decent info on Object oriented programming. I'd recommend Absolute C++ along with it to get the basics and then buy the C++ programming language if you really get into it. As for what language to learn, I can tell you that C is very helpful when learning C++ and Objective C. I took a course on C last year and its helped greatly with the C++ course I'm taking now. I understand where things come from in C++. I must say that C++ is easier than C in my view as i get Object oriented programming to some degree from VB and Java work i've done. I'm also starting to learn objective C (the competitor to C++) so that I can utilize my Macintosh as a development platform. The reason apple used objective C was because Mac OS X is really Nextstep which was written in like 1988 or so. C is not useless when trying to learn C++, although they are different. I do think of C++ as a superset of C, although as someone pointed out not a perfect one. Fans of each language prefer the model of programming associated with them. A C++ programmer almost always like object oriented design. C programmers like structured programming. Find out which you like and go that route. Lucas Holt Luke@FoolishGames.com ________________________________________________________ FoolishGames.com (Jewel Fan Site) JustJournal.com (Free blogging) "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)