Thread: Is it ok . . . ?

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    Is it ok . . . ?

    Well I'm a perfectionist, and I want to perfectly master the C++ and STL. After studding pretty much the whole C++ core language i started reading a C++ book. So that's my question, is it ok to skip the parts I already learned, or they might provide some useful information (Tho of course ill scroll around the parts i know to look for something new which marked in bold or other means)?

    Are those references are complete references or they still got somethin missing? http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ http://www.cppreference.com/wiki/start
    Last edited by ExDHaos; 05-20-2009 at 11:36 AM.

  2. #2
    Banned ಠ_ಠ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ExDHaos View Post
    Well I'm a perfectionist, and I wasn't to perfectly master the C++ and STL.
    lol, not going to happen


    p.s.
    lol at wasn't
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    Quote Originally Posted by ಠ_ಠ View Post
    lol, not going to happen


    p.s.
    lol at wasn't
    Gah, didn't notice the typo o__o

    Anyways, the point in my question isn't that but whether its ok to skip the parts I already know.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ಠ_ಠ View Post
    lol, not going to happen


    p.s.
    lol at wasn't
    Lol, and why not? i only want to master the core language and the STL (It's not endless, is it?)

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    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Well if you're going to wait to be "perfect" before writing your first substantial program, then you're never going to get anywhere.

    If by mastery, you mean to memorise the entire STL, then it's fractionally short of impossible, and a complete waste of time.

    The standard C library by comparison is miniscule. I've been doing C for the thick end of 20 years, and I still haven't bothered to memorise even a fraction of it. What bits I do know are through endless repetition of use, not by repetitious reading of manual pages.

    What I DO know however is a general overview of what the library offers, how to put all of that together in meaningful programs which work, and how to RTFM to find out the details of say the parameter order of fread(), or what some sequence of printf format specifiers gets me the answer I want.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    Well if you're going to wait to be "perfect" before writing your first substantial program, then you're never going to get anywhere.

    If by mastery, you mean to memorise the entire STL, then it's fractionally short of impossible, and a complete waste of time.

    The standard C library by comparison is miniscule. I've been doing C for the thick end of 20 years, and I still haven't bothered to memorise even a fraction of it. What bits I do know are through endless repetition of use, not by repetitious reading of manual pages.

    What I DO know however is a general overview of what the library offers, how to put all of that together in meaningful programs which work, and how to RTFM to find out the details of say the parameter order of fread(), or what some sequence of printf format specifiers gets me the answer I want.
    Well I have a really superb memorizing ability. But anyways, that wasn't my question, my question was about if its ok to skip things in the book.

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    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Just read through everything and work through all the examples. After that you can figure out what you need to re-read and redo. Sounds like a plan?
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    Yes it's perfectly ok to skip parts of the book covering things you already know.

    I agree with Salem that it's pointless (and not to say impossible) to perfectly master the STL.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Desolation View Post
    Yes it's perfectly ok to skip parts of the book covering things you already know.

    I agree with Salem that it's pointless (and not to say impossible) to perfectly master the STL.
    Well with all my perfectionism sense if ill see its really pointless then maybe ill be ok with just the big/important parts of STL.

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    Quote Originally Posted by laserlight View Post
    Just read through everything and work through all the examples. After that you can figure out what you need to re-read and redo. Sounds like a plan?
    I'm really bad with reading long text, i hate reading in the first place, that's why I want a reason and be sure that's ok to skip most of the core language part of the book cause if its something new then I don't have problem with long text so i just want to ditch the parts I learned and be sure I'm not missing some additional information they provide in the book which I didn't get from learning through the tutorials.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ExDHaos View Post
    I'm really bad with reading long text, i hate reading in the first place, that's why I want a reason and be sure that's ok to skip most of the core language part of the book cause if its something new then I don't have problem with long text so i just want to ditch the parts I learned and be sure I'm not missing some additional information they provide in the book which I didn't get from learning through the tutorials.
    do the exercises in the book, if you can't then reread the chapter
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    Algorithm Dissector iMalc's Avatar
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    Lets put it this way:
    Would you expect someone to memorise every word in the dictionary before giving their first speech?
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    Algorithm Dissector iMalc's Avatar
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    Oh by the way, here's some essential reading for every C++ purist.
    Guru of the Week (GotW) Archive - Main Index Page
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  14. #14
    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    >is it ok to skip the parts I already learned
    You can, but I wouldn't. You might think you know something, but another resource can provide new insights. If you skip over that part because you already learned it from somewhere else, you might miss out.
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    Registered User Sharke's Avatar
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    I wouldn't skip too much if I were you. When you're learning a new subject from multiple books it often helps to reabsorb things you've already learned, in the words of a different teacher. Different authors have different ways of explaining things and you might just learn something new or gain a slightly different perspective on something. For instance I'm reading Accelerated C++ at the minute and I was really tempted to skip over the explanations of loops etc at the start of the book, but I'm glad I didn't because I was introduced to the concept of an invariant, which I hadn't really thought of before even though I've used loops in a few different languages over the years. Besides, skipping is a risky business because you can't be sure the author doesn't throw in something new here and there, that you might be expected to know later in the book. My strategy is usually to speed read things I suspect I already know, while being on my guard for any new titbits of information or ways of thinking.

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