Very basic tutorial for beginners?

[sigmablack]

Hello everyone, i am thinking about making a tutorial for beginners in c++, i have noticed that most of the beginners are insulted on forums (you have the right to disagree)and thus most of them are afraid of asking questions or posting their codes.
What you people think, is it a good idea..
i am thinking about starting with which IDE to choose what are the advantages of one IDE over others, how to begin writing, tips for writing a better code etc..
do you people think it would be worth doing all this?
i am sorry if some of you think this thread if placed on wrong forum..

[Moschops]

I think beginners shouldn't start with an IDE. It forces them to learn how to operate an IDE as well as learning how to program and learning C++, often conflating the three things together (leading to questions like "Where can I download C++?").

Eventually, sometimes years later, they end up asking how to change their code to fix an "unresolved external" error, and it becomes clear they don't understand what a compiler/linker/library/editor is, because it was all presented as a single unholy mess.

[Disch]

I think beginners shouldn't start with an IDE. It forces them to learn how to operate an IDE as well as learning how to program and learning C++,

That's insanity. It'd be better for them to learn the makefile language and/or invoking gcc with it's dozens of cryptic commandline options in addition to the C++ language? And how do you suggest they debug without an IDE? cout lines? pfft.

IDEs make the learning (and programming, and debugging) process much, much easier.

often conflating the three things together (leading to questions like "Where can I download C++?").

So what? Explain the difference. Once they know the difference they won't make that mistake anymore.

[Moschops]

I suggest they start like this:

g++ myFirstProgram.cpp

which is about as simple as it gets, and build from there. That is a far more simple way to begin than an IDE.

And how do you suggest they debug without an IDE? cout lines?

Yup. The number of people who turn up here presenting a big stack of code they want us to help them with who clearly could have solved everything themselves if they'd only thought to cout values at key points is mind-boggling, and makes it clear that this simplest of debugging methods is something they need to know.

Then, they can move up to the simplest of steps with gdb or some such, which again, begins in a fantastically simple way that teaches them to think about what they're doing.

IDEs make the learning (and programming, and debugging) process much, much easier.

I disagree. I think they make programming and debugging easier (once you've learnt how to program and how to debug, and indeed how to use that IDE), but they impede learning.

We disagree. Such is life.

[Disch]

fair enough.