What's a good daily routine for learning C++?

[Nohbdy]

// What's a good daily routine that one could follow that would help a person learn or gain experience in C++? This could maybe be in the form of a single day when you wake up to when you go to bed which you can repeat and adjust, or maybe a day-by-day thing(though personally, the details of a single-day sound better!).

// Feel free to add humor, pseudo-code, or whatever else into the mix.. those things help as well! That doesn't mean a perfectly serious answer is any less!

// Reasons are cool. Let's say you decide to eat some food before, during, or after a session of coding.... if there's a reason for it then add it for extra info!(See below for examples)

// You don't need to make it adaptable for anyone, you can give a routine that you've specifically found useful in your own life and why, even if it's very unique and probably won't fit someone else(Much to learn in specific situations).

// Hypothetical examples(Coding, specifically):
"Eat [specific food type] 'before' coding, it's better for you because of [other reason]."/"Eat slowly 'while' coding, whenever you get stuck you can switch back to food for comfort and moment(Helps to avoid staring at code which can confuse you)"/"Take one 'byte' of food per statement or line, that way if you get stuck, food is your motivation."
"Start only after you fully wake up and take care of everything else, then get completely comfortable and ready for coding."/"Start coding before you get tired, but before you go to sleep, so your mind can go over what you've recently coded and you may have interesting dreams."/"Code when you don't feel like it, such as right after waking up. It will give you awareness and experience in coding under pressure or harsh conditions, depending on your state-of-mind."
"Code right before doing something fun and remember it while having fun. Your mind may link the action of 'coding' to the positivity of 'fun', and so subliminally you might enjoy the process of coding."/"Find something enjoyable with some form of statistic, and use coding as punishment. E.G. Play an online multi-player FPS, if your Kill-Death Ratio is positive, keep playing, otherwise take the negative number and use that for how many lines code you must type."/"Every time you come across an error, do a set amount of physical exercises and increase the amount/duration/difficulty for every subsequent error."

// Ironically, I can think of a few programs to be made that work well together with some of those examples. Sweet!

// Anyway, just reply with whatever you think is relevant!(Those examples were fun to think up though, I'd especially love to see some from anyone!)

[helios]

There's one food (if you can call it that) that's strongly associated with coding: caffeine in any of its forms (coffee, tea, soda). Anything else is irrelevant.

I haven't found any relationship between the time of day and coding ability, but I would advice against doing it when very tired. I've often found that a problem I was struggling with the night before, I could solve in a few minutes after waking up in the morning.

Code when you don't feel like it, such as right after waking up.

If you code when you aren't in the mood, you'll just make it harder for yourself (as an analogy, think about working out with DOMS. You'll do neither better nor worse, but it'll hurt).

Code right before doing something fun and remember it while having fun. Your mind may link the action of 'coding' to the positivity of 'fun', and so subliminally you might enjoy the process of coding.

No, but it is a good idea to take a break once in a while, particularly if working on a hard problem. It doesn't matter much what you do during the break; you can even switch to working on a different (preferably easier) problem.

[Nohbdy]

// That was definitely good info. Though, you don't need to respond to the examples, they're hypothetical just to spark some ideas. Some are purposely silly or meant for humor.

// I'm guessing you weren't being "too" serious with the caffeine thing, but either way I'm going to have to disagree. Nutrition has a bunch of perks for people if you use them right. Things that help out your joints, muscles, other forms of energy. Also, what about substances? I'm mainly talking 'legal' here, but that's controversial because there are legal substances that are similar to illegal ones. Obviously I'm sure smoking cigarettes is popular among programmers, so what about "Salvia" or "Spice" incenses, Kava Root/Beverages/Pills, Kratom tea... etc. Not interested in prescribed medicines personally. You could also factor in personal Oxygen bars, Hookah as a cigarette alternative, E-Cigarettes, Nitric Oxide, etc. If anyone has any experience with anything while programming along with the pros and cons, it'd be useful! Safety is probably a priority though.

[helios]

you don't need to respond to the examples

I realize that, but what I said is pretty much all that can be said other than "do it every day".

[Disch]

There's one food (if you can call it that) that's strongly associated with coding: caffeine in any of its forms (coffee, tea, soda). Anything else is irrelevant.

I used to be a serious caffeine junkie. Went through 2 to 3 liters of Mountain Dew a day.

I decided to quit about a year ago.

FWIW, I now find myself to be much more clear headed and more productive (when I'm in the mood to be productive, which isn't any more or less frequent than before). Not to mention I don't get all wired and stressed out over stupid things.


I wouldn't recommend caffeine to anyone. It's a horrible drug that too many people are fixed on.

[tition]

Eat [specific food type] 'before' coding, it's better for you because of [other reason].

Something that doesn't make too many crumbs, those get stuck between the keyboard keys. Not spaghetti though, cause the sauce may sprinkle your computer screen. And yourself, of course, but who cares about that.

use coding as punishment

I would suggest using WINAPI to do multithreading on windows XP (hint: not everything on the MNS site will work on YOUR windows). If you are into hurting yourself, try also using Eclipse on a file longer than 10k lines.

[Disch]

try also using Eclipse on a file longer than 10k lines

Why would you have a file longer than 10k lines?

[helios]

Went through 2 to 3 liters of Mountain Dew a day.

I think the bigger problem there is the sugar, not the caffeine.
Anyway, moderation is key, as in everything.

not everything on the MNS site will work on YOUR windows

I don't really see an issue. The minimum software requirements for each function are clearly documented in the MSDN. And the threading functions aren't that bad.