practical programming

one of the things i've looked forward to in comp sci is being able to make small tools for my self with what i've learned.

but the thing is that even after data structures, i know nothing practical with C++. i can only create command-line programs that serve no purpose.

with what i've learned so far, what resources can i check up on (books or site) where i can channel what i know into something useful?

what i had in mind were mods for games, maybe small apps that connect to mysql DBs for record keeping purposes.

p.s. i've done google searches on this, but nothing fruitful has come of it yet.

it really depends what you want to do, games? try LibSDL. GUI widget programs? try wxWidgets?
Without knowing your skill level and what you're interested in, it's hard to point you in a certain direction. There's libraries for just about everything.

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Originally Posted by IXxAlnxXI

one of the things i've looked forward to in comp sci is being able to make small tools for my self with what i've learned.

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That's right!

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but the thing is that even after data structures, i know nothing practical with C++. i can only create command-line programs that serve no purpose.

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Unless you feel proficient in C++, you can still write some console based utility programs. If you are on Linux, then emulating some of the basic commands should be real fun and very educative also. If you have both Windows and Linux you can try writing some of the simple command line utilities available on Linux for your Windows. One example would be grep.

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with what i've learned so far, what resources can i check up on (books or site) where i can channel what i know into something useful?

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Should it be, that, games are fun for you, try learning SDL for developing some really cool 2D based games.

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what i had in mind were mods for games, maybe small apps that connect to mysql DBs for record keeping purposes.

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Umm. Sorry, can't figure out what you are tying to say or ask :confused:

I don't have any idea how you go about modding games - and if I did, the forum rules would still prevent me from giving any details on the subject.

In the case of connecting to MySql, you can probably find about a dozen sites dedicated to MySql and the related C interfaces. Repeating even 10% of that here would be a hard task to fulfill.

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Mats

You will have to realize that "serving a practical purpose" differs for everyone. If your programming class focused on implementing least-squares-fits through data sets, sorting names, or calculating the energy levels of quantum wells, yet your idea of "practical purpose" is "database stuff" and "game mods", then there's a disconnect leaving you frustrated.

The suggestions to look into SDL here are probably more useful if you want to write a game from scratch yourself. Adding a "level" or feature to an existing game is a whole different thing.

Perhaps you should look into languages like PHP which should be relatively easy to understand since you know C++. This lets you develop "web-apps"; you can set up a database with all your CDs in it which you can query over a web interface. With this, you can get interactive, fancy-looking, "serving-a-purpose" code quickly.

Good luck,
Sander

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Computer Programming: An Introduction for the Scientifically Inclined

oh and if you really want to make "game mods" the way most people go about it is to obtain the source code of the game that released under a GNU-type license by the developers.

The old Half-Life SDK is a perfect example.