I have been wanting to program pixel and vertex shaders using c++ and hlsl and I've gotton them to work using examples posted here:

http://www.codesampler.com/dx9src/dx9src_8.htm

But I don't know how to move forward. The language is awkward and strange honestly, and I just want some more resources on this stuff.

Does anyone have any advice about web resources and even books that I can get? because I just need to get this stuff straight