How many years do you need to learn C++?

[cyeb]

I didn't say that it was for purely c++. I said that I learned c++ from the Project Euler challenges, and that the problems on Project Euler are purely for practice, because exactly who in real life is gonna want to know what the last ten digits of 1^1+2^2+..1000^1000 is?

[Albatross]

*raises wing*
*wing gets chopped off by chainsaw, owing to the fact by raising his wing, Albatross completely missed the point*
*uncrosses feathers of other wing*
*those get chopped off as well*

It seems to me like you have experience in mucking about with computers (ooh, the technical terms!). So if you want to learn how to write stuff in C++, the tutorials on this site and MSDN are really handy resources. I won't give a time number.
http://cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

If you want to write something with a GUI, then I recommend doing some research on what you'd want to use as a library. Some of the better ones are SDL, GTK+, and QT4. I can tell you for certain that the last one is very popular commercially (Skype uses QT4).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_widget_toolkits#Based_on_C_or_C.2B.2B_.28including_bindings_to_other_languages.29

C++ Library reference:
http://cplusplus.com/reference/

If you want exercises: http://cplusplus.com/forum/articles/12974/

If I'm wrong about what you want to do and you actually want to learn how to program in any language, then to avoid losing my other wing, then I recommend creating your own exercises (such as creating a numerical integration system using the trapezoidal rule). I have no links for that.

-Albatross

[hanst99]

When do you regard "learning C++" as finished? Cause if it's just the language itself, then it's a matter of weeks, not years. Depending on your learning speed, it might take a while until you can actually make useful applications though. And if it's about being able to completely exploit all possibilities the language offers... well, I am not sure if there are people like that out there.