Thread: Learning Rate Of C++

  1. #1
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    Question Learning Rate Of C++

    How fast do/did you people learn C++? I think I'm learning this stuff a bit too slow. I'm only on Day 8 of "Teach Yourself C++ In 21 Days" and I've been doing this stuff for about 4 months. While I do know more than just that, I think I'm learning this stuff waaay too slow. Is this true? How fast does everyone else learn it? If I am learning this stuff too slow, I should get off my rump and start learning C++, huh?

  2. #2
    Speedy5
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    I bought an over 1000 page c++ book. Read it all in 3 days during my vacations and I was writing quality c++ apps on that day. Everything I know is from those days. I was motivated and I wanted to learn it. So, just sit down and do it, stop slacking off! If you want to do it, just do it. You get no benefit from taking forever.

  3. #3
    Registered User abrege's Avatar
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    I also go at a relatively slow learning pace, and that is due to my obcene laziness But the good thing is that I'm still young and am not pressured to learn these things in a short period of time. I've started learning C++ in early October 2002 and the highlights of my creations include a RPG, Hangman, Tic-Tac-Toe and a Typing wizard. I suggest you force yourself to read these tutorials - it's both fun and productive to gain the new knowledge and find ways to implement it into your projects, and if you don't understand a particular topic, it is overly easy to ask for help on these boards and receive answers to all your questions Now if I could only get myself to do all that...
    Last edited by abrege; 01-27-2003 at 09:11 PM.
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  4. #4
    Speedy5
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    Actually, I'm 15... LOL (and social, btw) I just wanted to do it to make DirectX games in my spare time. Had nothing to do during those days in vacations, so...... Most of my friends went to camp or vacations on that SAME week, wow. :-D

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    Senior Member joshdick's Avatar
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    I don't think Speedy there is what I would consider normal or average. No one really learns an entire programming language in 21 days. You're still in 10th grade, Dean, so you have quite a bit of time. If I was you, I'd focus more on quality than quantity. Set some decent challenges for yourself in terms of projects to program. Make sure you fully understand a concept before trying to cram more information into your head. I think incorporating a newly learned concept into a program is a good way to learn. Try to get into some good habits early on like use functions often and dont use global variables. Don't stress over how fast your learning the language. You have the luxury of moving at your own pace. Keep programming in your life as a fun thing, not a stressful thing. I hope that helps. Best of luck to ya, man.
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  6. #6
    Speedy5
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    You're right. I forgot to say, I had been programming for QUITE a while. I already learnt Java so C++ was easy to me. Almost the same syntax. Just had to learn pointers, etc. Sorry about that misunderstanding.

  7. #7
    Speedy5
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    So yea, take your time. Several months, maybe a year and a half to get it, but not forever.

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    take your time. everyone learns at a different rate. I'm kindof learning slow, but that is the pace of the class, and I don't have time to really read a book. I guess that is what college is for; learning more programming. anything learned is learned by different people at different rates, programming included. just have fun with it, and good luck!

    i agree with joshdick.

  9. #9
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    Try to use more than one tutorial. Look at the tutorial on this website and c++ in 21 days tutorial. If you don't understand a concept from one tutorial then look at the same subject from another tutorial. They will both teach you the same thing but will word it in a way which might make more sence than the other one. Also read threw the first few chapters of the tutorials and then start a project that is slightly above your knowledge level. Then look at what the tutorials say and try incorporating the code into your project. I found that just going threw the tutorials didn't help much because i would just copy and paste the code, then move to the next chapter before i really knew what was going on. If your making your own project then you will have to understand what is going on to add more advanced code.

    I've probably been programming in c++ for over a year. I never really sat down and decided to learn stuff though. I would just program when i was in the mood to, which wasn't very often.

  10. #10
    Back after 2 years Panopticon's Avatar
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    Im pretty slow too. But that doesn't bother me. Ive been learning C++ for about 4 months too now, but my school life is quite demanding. (Maybe cos Im like one of those anti-social science / math geeks but thats a different story ) and I can only *really* learn during term holidays (Thank God for the loose Australian education system where holidays almost match school days). But I guess you will know the threshold between "Im just a bit busy / not a motivated person" and "I find this boring and repetitive". If the second case is true, then maybe you should look for somethin you are truely interested in and I guarantee learning it wont feel like its a chore.
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  11. #11
    Just a Member ammar's Avatar
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    The rate of learning C++ varies from a person to another...
    For example, if you know a programming language before, it will be easier to learn C++, and even if two people had the same background still, some people can learn faster than others.
    none...

  12. #12
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    I'm starting to feel like I'm also falling behind.I'm on like my 5th or 6th day or programing in C++ and I still can't creat a simple password system.But I do have a VERY BASIC understanding of most of the stuff though.I could porbably look at a code and common sense would tell me what it all means,but I can implement it in my own progs.
    think before you code...

  13. #13
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    As I recall, It took me a couple of months to go through "C in 21 days", then maybe another month and a half to go through "C++ in 21 days". I wasn't necessary to go through the C book, but it did make the C++ book easier, because of the similarity.

    I was studying part-time after work, and I typed-in all the examples by hand to get familiar with the syntax. C/C++ is about my 5th programming language (2 assembly languages, Fortran, Basic, and a couple of special-purpose languages).

    C++ is the most difficult language I've studied. And learning to program the Windws API with C++ is much more difficult.

    So don't feel bad if its going slow. The book should really be called "C++ in 21 lessons". This is the best Self-teaching C++ book I've seen. (Too bad there's not a similar book for windows programing.)

  14. #14
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    Is the question "Learning Rate of Programming and C++" or "Learning Rate of C++"? If you're using C++ as a method of learning programming, then yes, it's going to take you a lot longer. If you've already had a good start in programming, then learning C++ won't take as long.

  15. #15
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    I went from nothing to C++ Win32 OpenGL in 1 year.

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