CProgramming.com should update their tutorials.

I first learned how to code in C++ mainly from CProgramming's tutorials, and I think they have a lot of merit. They are thorough(on the subjects covered) and are great for beginners. But they have one huge flaw: they were written over 8 years ago. For a language like C++ that is still alive and changing and not just a relic of the good old days, this is far too long to go without updating tutorials. The current ISO standard for C++ was first ratified in late 1997(or early 1998, somewhere around there), at least a year after these tutorials were written, and as far as I have seen, there has not been one substantial update to the core introductory tutorials to date. Depreciated *.h headers, old C-style casts with no mention of C++'s newer more explicit casts, no mention whatsoever of standard classes as rudimentary as the string object, and the list goes on and on. In these tutorials, there are 3 documents pertaining to generic programming/STL, (IMHO) a huge part of C++, and there are 5 documents on rotation in 3D. Rotation in 3D? Who cares? The fact is that the current, standard C++ is a much stronger language than the one that is taught at large in these tutorials, and I am of the opinion that it is high time for a substantial update. CProgramming should AT LEAST warn its readers that its tutorials are pre-standard, 8 years out of date. Am I wrong?

c++ has great tutorials but yes they could be more better.
like i say All programmers can be good @ coding, but only few can be good @ teaching.

perhaps this could be a new "Project" for mods and the community.

>Am I wrong?
No, just lacking in current information. I've updated the tutorials and sent them to the webmaster, but sweeping changes like that aren't made overnight. Be patient and nag the appropriate parties. ;)

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Originally Posted by Prelude

>Am I wrong?
No, just lacking in current information.

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Type http://www.cprogramming.com into a browser and read the tutorials. As far as I'm concerned, your current information is right there.

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Originally Posted by Prelude

I've updated the tutorials and sent them to the webmaster, but sweeping changes like that aren't made overnight. Be patient...

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I understand that changes like that can't be made overnight, but they surely can and should have been made in a period of 7 years. There have been many changes and additions to cprogramming.com over the years, and it's obvious that the content of their tutorials is not a top priority, and I think it should be. How many times have you seen misguided fledgling programmers come to the board using evil, pre-standard constructs and having no knowledge of a huge portion of the language. Sure, they are largely at fault for their own ignorance, but the community has spent a huge amount of time and effort correcting the misinformation being taught in the outdated tutorials, and I think it's high time for CProgramming to put a little effort into it as well.

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Originally Posted by Prelude

..nag the appropriate parties. ;)

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Sure, I suppose I could send my complaints in an e-mail just so some member of CProgramming's staff could respectfully blow me off, but I think if 20 people responded to this thread agreeing with me, it would be a little more persuasive.

I don't mean to sound disrespectful or angry, just a little frustrated. I do appreciate your response Prelude(and I'm glad to see someone is at least making an effort)

I just think that the webmaster is way too busy, so just let him do it at his own convenience.

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Originally Posted by PorkyChop

Sure, they are largely at fault for their own ignorance, but the community has spent a huge amount of time and effort correcting the misinformation being taught in the outdated tutorials, and I think it's high time for CProgramming to put a little effort into it as well.


Sure, I suppose I could send my complaints in an e-mail just so some member of CProgramming's staff could respectfully blow me off, but I think if 20 people responded to this thread agreeing with me, it would be a little more persuasive.

I don't mean to sound disrespectful or angry, just a little frustrated. I do appreciate your response Prelude(and I'm glad to see someone is at least making an effort)

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Just who do you think gets paid to write the tutorials? Oh, that's right, noone! This is a volunteer site. You're not paying to post here. You're not paying people to answer your questions. I could go off on a huge rant here, but I'll keep it short.

As for "correcting the misinformation being taught in the outdated tutorials", get real! People post on the C board with Turbo C 2.1 and Turbo C 3.0 ALL THE TIME. C99 what? Latest what? Try again.

Quzah.

I think you have a very good point. I am at the basics of C++ but I was lucky. I was warned that these tutorials were out of date and I found a better one that is up to date. http://cplus.about.com is exellent. I just started using it a couple of days ago. :)

porkchop, isn't this community enough for you? :rolleyes: :p

this site's focal point are these boards; you can't have everything, life isn't fair - sorry you had to learn it this way.... yeah.

But like Prelude said, many tuts are rewritten, just not up yet; sure it doesn't help you much now, but the world doesn't revolve around your chop.

Alright, just one more post and then I'll quit my belly achin'.

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Originally Posted by quzah

Just who do you think gets paid to write the tutorials? Oh, that's right, noone! This is a volunteer site.

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If volunteers can create an operating system in 7 years, I don't see any reason why they can't update a few C++ tutorials. These "volunteers" have found plenty of time to update these forums and part of their site design in the recent past, but have paid comparatively very little attention to what should be their top priority. I find it ironic that the design of the site has progressed with the times, but not its content.

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Originally Posted by quzah

As for "correcting the misinformation being taught in the outdated tutorials", get real! People post on the C board with Turbo C 2.1 and Turbo C 3.0 ALL THE TIME. C99 what? Latest what? Try again.

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So you're arguing that these tutorials are actually not outdated because there are people who for some reason choose to use obsolete compilers? That's like saying that UNIVAC computers aren't outdated because some people still use abacuses. We should all move on to at least the 21st century here, that's the point. These tutorials are 8 years old, they are pre-standard, they are outdated. Period.

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Originally Posted by axon

porkchop, isn't this community enough for you?
...
the world doesn't revolve around your chop.

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Since when was this about me? I already know the language. This is about newbies like pizzapie who deserve to at least a warning that the tutorials are not current.

I agree with you, PorkyChop.
Using deprecated headers in the tutorials and complaining at the boards when newbies use them is not the best way teach programming.

However, someone still has to write those tutorials...

There are other issues with the tutorials as well, like the STL being covered under 'advanded tutorials', while pointers and character arrays are being taught very early.

can anyone point me to a good tutorial on women :confused:

Nope

Although there are hash tables in the STL that are not yet standard, the tutorials need some infomation on how to do a hash table implementation, both hashing with chaining and open hashing. Maybe this could be part of a more general search and set section? We also should have some sort of infomation on sorting; these questions come up too often.

I believe you'll find stuff like that if you look in the issues of the Code Journal before that fell apart. CProgramming.com's sister site AIHorizon.com has some implementations of sorting algorithms.

No, the searching that I'm talking about is different than a AI search, based more on simply inserting an item with a key and then retrieving the item by key. Graphs are another thing we should at least mention. Zobrist hashing is a similar idea to basic string hashing, but a discussion of this would be only a small part of a general hashing discussion.

>Type http://www.cprogramming.com into a browser and read the tutorials.
I did. Very carefully in fact. I was surprised that I had to change so little to bring them up to date.

>As far as I'm concerned, your current information is right there.
Do you believe everything you hear on the news too? ;):D

>and it's obvious that the content of their tutorials is not a top priority
The FAQ and community have been top priority, and maintaining them is practically a full time job. Perhaps you should enjoy what you have and be pleasantly surprised when you get more than complaining about what you don't have.

>How many times have you seen misguided fledgling programmers come to the
>board using evil, pre-standard constructs
Quite often, and they're quickly corrected. No harm, no foul.

>and having no knowledge of a huge portion of the language.
This is synonymous with being a beginner. Hell, many experienced C++ programmers have no knowledge of a huge portion of the language. :rolleyes:

>and I think it's high time for CProgramming to put a little effort into it as well
To be perfectly honest, I consider my posts here to be a much higher priority than tutorials. If I find time to work on tutorials, they're for the FAQ. And I'm not nearly as strapped for time as the webmaster is.

>so some member of CProgramming's staff could respectfully blow me off
They would tell you that changes are in motion, just like I did. If you call that blowing off then that's your problem.

>but have paid comparatively very little attention to what should be their top priority.
The forums have been updated and worked on quite a bit. :D IMO that's THE top priority, but I'm a little biased.

All sarcasm aside, I agree that the tutorials are woefully outdated and need to be improved, but I've done all that I can do in implementing those changes and sending them to someone who can add them to the site. There's no point in talking about it, the changes will be made whenever someone can get around to it.

>can anyone point me to a good tutorial on women
I could, but you wouldn't understand it. ;)

>the tutorials need some infomation on how to do a hash table implementation
That's on my list of articles to write. At the moment I'm still on part 3 of the binary search tree tutorial.

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>can anyone point me to a good tutorial on women
I could, but you wouldn't understand it.

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I'll take my chances

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>can anyone point me to a good tutorial on women
I could, but you wouldn't understand it.

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so what you are saying.. is that there is a lot of similarity between women and c++.... :cool: