Saying Hello

Feb 12, 2019 at 4:44pm
Hello everyone. I have just registered and thought it right and proper that I say hello. I am a middle aged man that has dabbled in different sorts of programming at a basic level. C++ has been on my mind for some years and I have finally decided to give it a go.

I am currently part way through a beginners book about C++. I have started hitting some small problems that I am trying to work out myself. If I cannot get past them I will no doubt start reading/posting in the forums.
Feb 12, 2019 at 5:00pm
a beginners book about C++

keep in mind there are many bad books about C++: consider following the list from https://stackoverflow.com/a/388282
Feb 12, 2019 at 8:13pm
closed account (E0p9LyTq)
I am currently part way through a beginners book about C++.

There are also several decent online tutorials you can look over:

1. The tutorial here as cplusplus hasn't been updated in quite some time, yet it teaches the basics. http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

2. Another tutorial that is updated frequently, and delves into many of the newer features added to C++ with C++11/14/17. https://www.learncpp.com/

Online references, with mini examples:

1. http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ Not up to date.

2. https://en.cppreference.com/w/ Very authoritative, very technical, updated to include C++20 features expected to be added to the new standard. NOT a site for learning the language, period.

If you can learn from reading books, here's a suggestion for what to buy:

https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/how-to-learn-cpp#best-book

Notice: Best Books Multiple, not single.

As Cubbi mentioned, there are lots of books you should avoid.
Feb 12, 2019 at 8:57pm
Thank you for the advice and I would agree with you about some bad books. When I got into PHP I went through a book and the examples did not even work. I ended up spending far too much time trying to debug things. This was a book I used from my daughters university library that I thought should have been accurate, alas no.

I picked up a book from my local library just as a starting point to get me into the basics of the C++ language before I dive into it a little further. I must say that the example code in the book, so far, is producing working programs. I am writing very small programs of my own based on what I have learned in the examples just to get the ideas fixed in my head. The programs are working but some values and results are unexpected.

I will be checking the links that have been kindly supplied and expect to be embarrassing myself by posting my "silly little programs" in the forums if I am at a standstill. I do try my best to solve the problem myself but sometimes I have to give up after failing to see what I have done wrong (same with the wife really).

Again, thank you for the advice.
Feb 13, 2019 at 6:16pm
I have got my hands on Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup. Looking forward to getting stuck in. Hello World here I come, again.
Feb 13, 2019 at 8:31pm
Heh, I started with GW-BASIC on a 8088. (Also played with Basic on a Z80 a little, but my Dad kicked us all off once the PC had games to keep us busy.)

Or was it the Commodore that came first?

IDR.
Feb 13, 2019 at 9:57pm
Happy memories eh! ZX Spectrum (in England) then the C64 I seem to recall. My friend had a C64 and I was envious. I remember a great game called Boulderdash that we would play.

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Used to get a book from the library with games in and get my Mum to read each line out while I typed them all in.
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