Thread: Do I have to learn C, to...

be able to start learning C++?

I am having High School Final Examinations in June, and I have to learn HTML and C++. The problem is, in my book about C++ it says I have to know C before starting with C++. But I'm afraid I will not have enough time, because I have other subjects as well. Currently I have almost no knowledge about either C or C++, although I am very good at HTML, and web design in general.

Please, tell me if I can start learning C++ without having to master C. It is very important to me. Thank you!

No, you don't need to know C to learn C++. C++ is derived from C with a lot more features and capabilities.

Check out thinking in C++ Chapter "The C in C++", it's a quick one chapter overview of C conventions. You can download the book off the official site. I don't have it, just google "Thinking in C++" and the official site has the download links. I don't think you have to, the book may say that if you have no prior programming knowlege.

My advice if you never looked at C then jump right into C++, C++ is seen by some as a C superset/extension while others will say it's a fully different language with similar concepts to those from C.

From my personal experience, i learned some C years before i started looking into C++ and when i got started in C++ i was always applying C-style thinking to C++ thus ending up with a really weird mix of C code with C++ code. I must tell you many times i still have weird doubts as to what's the correct way of doing somethings because of that.
Now, whenever i talk to people getting into programming i always tell them to jump right into C++. After all, either C++ is seen as an extension of C or a totally different language they will share a lot of stuff and by learning C++ you'll always learn something about C as well.

Just my 2 cents. Cheers

Originally Posted by eu.stefan

be able to start learning C++?

I am having High School Final Examinations in June, and I have to learn HTML and C++. The problem is, in my book about C++ it says I have to know C before starting with C++. But I'm afraid I will not have enough time, because I have other subjects as well. Currently I have almost no knowledge about either C or C++, although I am very good at HTML, and web design in general.

Please, tell me if I can start learning C++ without having to master C. It is very important to me. Thank you!

C is a very small language, compared to C++. But you don't really have to know C to learn C++, though I will admit it can be *very* helpful. I learned C a couple of years ago (actually, learning is never ending) and, I'm currently learning C++. I will tell you that, I do not regret at all ever learning C first. I think without it, it would have seemed almost impossible for me to grasp a lot of the concepts in C++. Knowing C, C++ seems so straight-forward and I actually like it better than C. But to each his own.

- xeddiex

Html has nothing to do with C++, so anything you know about html will be of absolutely no help in learning C++.

But I'm afraid I will not have enough time

A lifetime isn't enough time to learn C++. There is always someone in any language, including html, that can make you feel like a beginnner. There are very few people who can ever claim to know a language. You only know more or less as time passes.

While many C++ experts suggest learning C++ separately from C (in other words, you don't need/want to learn C before C++), what you specifically need to learn depends on what your exam covers. There is a wide range of coding practices used in C++, and the best practices for being a good C++ programmer might not be the same as the practices that you will be tested on in your exam.

So if your goal is to do well on the exam, find out what it tests on and learn that.

Thank you all for your replies!

You really helped me a great deal. I'll jump straight to C++ and will not even look at C for now. I hope to cover all the topics that my exam requires.

Thanks again

I learned C++ first, but reviewing K&R TCPL was worthwhile.

In any case you should learn *some* C after mastering C++, many "old gold" functions like sqrt() and time() are still in common use in C++. Besides, C is faster, leaner and meaner.