how to improve my skills..

[devil@work]

i just finished my first book on c++ learn c++ in 21 day what do you suggest to improve my skill and please do not write write programs.what did you do?

[Speedy5]

I suggest you go borrow or buy another book and read it. Are you very familiar with pointers? templates? the STL libraries? the C/C++ standard? If not, you got more stuff to learn. If you think you're ready, go ahead and learn whatever you want.

Games? Learn OpenGL or DirectX.
Windows apps? MFC, WinAPI 32, .NET (recommended; microsoft gives the compilers for free)

Just keep learning more and more libraries and learn new technologies like XML and all that internet stuff which is where programming is heading in the future.

[DougDbug]

You could take an intermediate programming class.

Keep reading this board. Try to answer some questions, even if you have to do some research.

Get Petzolds' book and start learning windows programming. That is what I did... after more than a year I'm still just a beginning windows programmer. Oh, that's NOT Petzold's fault. It's an excellent book. Unfortunatly, the book is not in the "Teach Yourself" style. There are no questions or exercises. Unfortunately, NONE of the more advanced books seem to be designed for self-study.

Learn one of the other graphics libraries (Open GL, Allegro...)

Start working on a "project" (or projects) of your choice... Something that will take you more than a couple of days to finish... something that will require you to research and learn more.

[alpha]

I agree with the above suggestions.
I have learned a lot since I have joined this board by helping others.
I recommend helping others even if you have to look stuff up, you will learn a lot by doing this, as DougDBug said.

[7stud]

"i just finished my first book on c++ learn c++ in 21 day what do you suggest to improve my skill"

One option would bet to get a book like Ivor Horton's Beginning C++ to expand your knowledge of C++. It's one of the few books that has exercises with model answers at the end of each chapter. I think you'll be surprised by how little the Sams book you read taught you in comparison.

Another option would be to learn windows programming and MFC, which uses windows as the interface for interacting with the user. Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 6 would be a good book for that. The first chapters are on C++, which after reading a Sam's book would be good for you to learn, and then it gets into windows programming and MFC.

[devil@work]

i am not into windows programming i havent used it for years and not planing to use it.

[confuted]

aye, the point remains, though...Sams books are actually quite horrible. I have one sitting on my floor right now. Sure, it's outdated, but I know that some of what I read was incorrect when it was current, and I've barely begun the book. If you don't want to program Windows, you might consider trying to learn OpenGL, but first, read some more books. Also, check out the Linux forum on this site, the people there might have some suggestions.

[gamer4life687]

I also recommend you buy a book. I have two for myself and have read 3 and it always helps to have one by your side as reference. However if you dont have much money or you just want free stuff try this website which has a few free book of different stuff for computers.

http://www.maththinking.com/boat/computerbooks.html

The section u might be looking for is under languages.

[Xei]

You don't need to purchase a book. I've only read a couple of sections from, I think, Windows Programming by Jeff Petzold. What I did was read through tonnes of Windows API calls from their APIViewer, then if I found a function that looked like it could be useful in the future I would implement that, then I would look at others and figure out how to use them as well. Ofcourse when I did that I would look at things like "Memory Mapping" and think "That looks dumb" and overlook it(overlooking un-understood terms are usually bad). You could also check out places like www.thecodeproject.com and just look at topics that you might find interesting.

When I was learning C++ I downloaded SAMS teach yourself Visual C++ in 21 days and I couldn't stand it. Personally, I don't think that using UpdateData(), and other methods used by that book are methods worth practicing(actually, I dislike MFC Applications). For a more-recent API list you may visit: http://www.mentalis.org/apilist/apilist.php

You can also study some RFC's, and Algorithms and practice implementing them into a C++ application. You could also try searching Amazon.com for a query of: "Advanced C++" and see what comes up.

edit: NM the api lists if you dont do windows. Maybe somebody who has experience with Linux programming could give you a programming reference, I know there is one with the compiler that comes with RedHat 8, I think its GCC K++?

[7stud]

"i am not into windows programming"

Neither am I, that's why I'm studying "windows programming and MFC" which is entirely different--Wizards perform all the mundane tasks. For instance, it takes about 100 lines of code to program a basic window using the windows API, but with MFC and Visual C++, I click a few check boxes on a Wizard, and the Wizard produces all the code for the window.

[Xei]

Originally posted by 7stud
"i am not into windows programming"

Neither am I, that's why I'm studying "windows programming and MFC" which is entirely different--Wizards perform all the mundane tasks. For instance, it takes about 100 lines of code to program a basic window using the windows API, but with MFC and Visual C++, I click a few check boxes on a Wizard, and the Wizard produces all the code for the window.

But! It doesn't necessarily take 100 lines. You can also use this:
DialogBox and DialogBoxParam.

[bookworm]

Y dont u try out visual C++.net . Its extremely powerful.

[JasonD]

Originally posted by devil@work
i just finished my first book on c++ learn c++ in 21 day what do you suggest to improve my skill and please do not write write programs.what did you do?

If you are speaking about improving the skills you already have, then (and you do not want to hear this) the best way is to find a program you are passionate about creating that requires the tools that you wish to improve. It will force you to become proficient in them, and you'll enjoy doing it. The answer is not to simply write programs (although that would help), but to write programs that create something you have been itching to create. Something that is small enough that you can do without getting over your head (i.e. if you want to get into A.I. game playing algorithms, then trying a simple tic-tac-toe program, and forget about chess).

If you are looking to acquire new skills, then everyone else's points are completely valid. If your program requires using windows, then you must buy a book and learn that particular topic. It depends on which direction you want to go.

[HaLCy0n]

Since everyone keeps suggesting to you to learn windows programming, and I'm a linux enthuiast like you, I'll give you some things I've been planning on doing to help my skills. It really depends what you want to get into though, gaming, daemons, etc. If you want to start getting into some GUI things, I would suggest looking into GTK and other libraries like it. I would suggest looking at current projects out there and seeing how they did things, and trying to emulate it yourself on your own. Even doing things that have been done before can help teach you something you didn't know before. Just keep trying to make projects for yourself that will take some time to figure out how to do, or see if you can get involved with a project that interests you if you think your skills are good enough.

[devil@work]

i do not use windows thats why i am not into windows programming i use linux i got a search engine project that i have been working in php guess i am going to port it to c++ some socket programming and mysql c++ api that should keep me busy for a while.and i bought the c++ programming book started it.