Thread: Starting c++, looking for books&stuff

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This question has been asked and answered more times than I've posted.

If you haven't found 'em yet check-out the Cprogramming.com tutorials. They don't have the depth of the typical 500 page beginning C++ book, but they'll get you started.

Search the board for "books", it's a common question.

Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, by Jesse Liberty
Was my beginning book, and I liked it because it was easy to understand, and it is well structured for self-study with questions/exercises at the end of each "day" (chapter) and answers/solutions in the back. But, I always include a WARNING - Some people hate all of the 21 Days books!

Accelerated C++, By Koenig & Moo
This is a second-hand recommendation. I don't own it, but is often recommended, and I've never read anythng negative about it.

Anyways i'm also interested how much time did it take u to learn the basics of c++

Well, it took me, I think 4 or 5 weeks to work through 21 Days. I took my time and hand-typed-in all of the example programs, etc. If you were a college student, semesters of C++ should be enough to become an excellent standard C++, programmer. Then you could move-on to something more advanced like Windows or some other system-specific shtuff. I'm not saying that you have to know that much standard C++ before learning Windows... but there is a lot to C++!

Anyways which programming language is the "best" and the most advanced..

I think you'll find a consensus, HERE ON THE C++ board, that C++ IS THE BEST LANGUAGE!!!!

C/C++ is the most popular / widely used language. Windows is written in C++, MS Word is written in C++, Linux is written in C/C++. You can find a C or C++ compiler for almost any computer/platform. However, as you can tell from what I've said above, it's not simple to learn, and you often have to go beyond standard C++ to do something useful. (There are no graphics, color, sound, or mouse, or netwrok/Internet in standard-portable C++.)

Yep somebody gave me a bad rating for mentioning the 21 Days Book

Sams learn C++ in 21 days is an awesome starting book no matter what anyone tells you. There are complaints about many Sams books, however i havent seen many who disliked the book in question.

For a beginner it explains things very well and it helped me a ton to explain the vastness in easy to understand ways. Specially compared to the other c++ book i own, which reads like a damn dictionary. Turns out the random memory leak did it

I recommend "C++ how to program" by Deitel & Deitel. Some people complain about it bieng "too colorful" but i personally love it. (its a "bit" expensive btw)

>>I think you'll find a consensus, HERE ON THE C++ board, that C++ IS THE BEST LANGUAGE!!!!
You'd better watch out, because that isn't necessarily true. All languages have their strengths, even including Visual Basic (go do a board search, the argument has been done several times before).

>>C/C++ is the most popular / widely used language.
Again, that isn't necessarily true. Java is widely used for its cross-platform and quick GUI development capabilities, and other RAD languages are too. C++ is a nice and poweful language though, and will help teach you OOP. Really, I say just pick a language and learn it - every language you learn will eventually come in handy in some way, whether you're writing a game for you cell phone (java) or writing MS Word (C++?), or creating an operating system for some gizmo your company has designed (assembly of some sort), or writing a quick 2D game (Visual Basic), or anything in between.

i'd be careful about "one of them 21 days books", all i know is basically the only good i'v heard about is specifically the one myself and Doug told you about by Jesse Liberty or w/e.

I too personally dislike the lot of the learn x in z amount of time books. So just make sure the one you get is liked by others lol.