From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 12 09:09:14 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 DD92E16A4CE for ; Wed, 12 Nov 2003 09:09:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from hotmail.com (law9-f22.law9.hotmail.com [64.4.9.22]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 00A7443FE0 for ; Wed, 12 Nov 2003 09:09:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from exhausted01@hotmail.com) Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Wed, 12 Nov 2003 09:09:12 -0800 Received: from 209.42.38.167 by lw9fd.law9.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Wed, 12 Nov 2003 17:09:12 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.42.38.167] X-Originating-Email: [exhausted01@hotmail.com] From: "yo _" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 12:09:12 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 12 Nov 2003 17:09:12.0754 (UTC) FILETIME=[B1CCF920:01C3A93F] Subject: Re: Another Newbie Question: C or C++ 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 17:09:15 -0000 >I would recommend not trying to learn C or C++ by yourself from a book. >The fastest (and best way) to learn the right stuff is to take coursework >from a university or community college. Not that I like disagreeing for no good reason, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that statement. >If the courses are any good, you'll get feedback, and you'll be paced >and challenged with projects designed to help you learn. > >Going it alone in an unguided environment will only familiarize you >the lesser aspects of a language, if you last that long. The difficult >and most important aspects of the language (like pointers, virtual >functions, references) will become almost insurmountable trial-and-error >obstacles if you try to teach yourself. If you want to get a lower paying and boring job programming in C/C++ for whatever reason and have a piece of paper that says you can have that job, I recommend wasting 4-6 months taking a course in your spare time to learn C/C++. If you want to be top of your game and learn C/C++ without wasting time on topics that take you a minute to understand, get a good book, practice the topics you have learned at your own pace, get numorous code examples for things you may want to do (sockets, GUI, OpenGL, ncurses, threading, kernel interfacing) from the glorious and infinite internet and emulate good programming style (using const qualifiers in C++, using #defines in C, etc.). Also be prepared to teach yourself because you may not always be prepared for a job you may find yourself with; learn how to easily learn and use external libraries. The best programmers will teach themselves. A statement that may be on the borderline of opinion to fact by constant example. After all the first programmer, in fact, taught herself. -Rian Hunter _________________________________________________________________ MSN Messenger with backgrounds, emoticons and more. http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/cdp_customize