Thread: Where to go from here?

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    Where to go from here?

    I've learned the basics of C++. I find it hard to continue my learning though because I don't know where to go from there. Not exactly a set path for going from beginner to intermediate to advanced programming topics. I've searched but normally what I find is majorly more advanced that what I'm prepared to do from learning basics (classes, structs, arrays, simple file i/o, pointers, references, etc) but not touched STL, Heap and stack queues, linked lists, binary trees, or anything like that yet. Needing a little guidance to start mastering C++ more so that I can become more comfortable with game programming. I'm still just a beginner in C++ and going into game programming is overwhelming for me because I don't know many advanced things and the basics I do know I just kind of keep rehashing in way of apps that do basically the same thing because I'm not good at thinking up project ideas for just C++ (have tons of game ideas though). Any advice or guidance?

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    Programming Wraith GReaper's Avatar
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    Well, if you keep on being afraid of the "advanced", you'll never go beyond the "beginner". I hit that ceiling sometimes, being between "I want to do something incredible" and "This is too much, that is too easy, the other is too boring...". Try something, anything, even if you're sure that your attempt will be a failure. What have you got to lose( other than time and mind maybe )?
    Devoted my life to programming...

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    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BHXSpecter
    I've searched but normally what I find is majorly more advanced that what I'm prepared to do from learning basics (classes, structs, arrays, simple file i/o, pointers, references, etc) but not touched STL, Heap and stack queues, linked lists, binary trees, or anything like that yet.
    If you want to solidify your knowledge of the basics of C++, work through Accelerated C++ by Koenig and Moo. You can literally go through it at an accelerated pace because of your existing knowledge of C++, and it will introduce you to the standard containers and patch small things that you might have missed. Next would be Effective C++, 3rd edition by Meyers and The C++ Standard Library by Josuttis. All three books are slightly outdated with the new version of the C++ standard, but they are still relevant.

    However, this is just about C++. If you really want to get into algorithms and data structures, then you need to find a book about them. Such a book may or may not use C++ as the programming language, but as long as the author(s) tried to be language neutral, you should be fine.

    Quote Originally Posted by BHXSpecter
    I do know I just kind of keep rehashing in way of apps that do basically the same thing because I'm not good at thinking up project ideas for just C++ (have tons of game ideas though).
    Implement one of these game ideas. Make the requirements within your reach.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

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    learn Qt, FLTK or wxWidgets and get into some GUI programming. that will be a good way to go beyond the basic stuff into more intermediate and advanced.

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    I have QT on Ubuntu and Vista but the tutorials I kept finding never compiled. I'll look again though.

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    [](){}(); manasij7479's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BHXSpecter View Post
    I have QT on Ubuntu and Vista but the tutorials I kept finding never compiled. I'll look again though.
    What do you mean by you 'have' Qt ?
    Are you sure that you've installed the development libs in Ubuntu, and not the runtime ones ?
    Other than that, Ubuntu's packages are(or were.. (not sure)) a little behind in version numbers.. so you've got to find tutorials for the accurate older version.

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    What do you mean by you 'have' Qt ?
    I mean I installed the QT Creator suite on both OSes. I tried the Text Finder tutorial that comes with QT Creator and upon compiling the only error I got was for textEdit() in three spots.

    ui->textEdit->find(searchString, QTextDocument::FindWholeWords);
    ui->textEdit->setPlainText(line);
    QTextCursor cursor = ui->textEdit->textCursor();

    Google revealed a lot of questions about it but none that told how to fix it. Also Ubuntu installs needed dependencies which I believe include the dev packages too.

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    I did follow it, unless I jumped over something. Also I never copy and paste code if I can avoid it as it doesn't help you learn if you aren't punching it out by hand. Text Finder is the beginner tutorial according to the QT Creator Welcome files.

    [REVISION]
    Sometimes deleting posts shouldn't be allowed, as now it looks like I'm double posting and talking to myself because Elkvis removed his post lol.
    Last edited by BHXSpecter; 02-22-2012 at 12:12 PM.

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    [](){}(); manasij7479's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BHXSpecter View Post
    Also Ubuntu installs needed dependencies which I believe include the dev packages too.
    Yes, it should.
    Have to tried to compile a hello world sort of program to make sure everything was set up correctly ? ..or is the first one you've tried ?

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    the post could not have been there for more than 10 or 15 seconds when I deleted it. I deleted it because I didn't feel that my post added anything useful above and beyond what was said before I posted it.

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    Yes, it should.
    Have to tried to compile a hello world sort of program to make sure everything was set up correctly ? ..or is the first one you've tried ?
    No, the first one I tried was the C++ QT Application Text Finder tutorial that is included with the QT Creator documentation.

    Qt Creator : Creating a Qt Widget Based Application

    the post could not have been there for more than 10 or 15 seconds when I deleted it. I deleted it because I didn't feel that my post added anything useful above and beyond what was said before I posted it.
    Oh well, still added a useful comment about QT I didn't know.

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    [](){}(); manasij7479's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BHXSpecter View Post
    No, the first one I tried was the C++ QT Application Text Finder tutorial that is included with the QT Creator documentation.
    See if this compiles correctly:
    Code:
    #include <QApplication>
    #include <QTextEdit>
    int main(int argc,char** argv)
    {
         QApplication app(argc,argv);
         QTextEdit t;
         t.show();
         return app.exec();
    }
    Use the commands "qmake -project" , "qmake" and "make" successively to compile. (Outside the QtCreator to detect problems with wrong environment ).

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    Yeah it worked fine. Did a google search for a hello world C++ qt tutorial. Didn't see your code. But I replace that code with yours and it still compiled fine.
    Where to go from here?-screenshot-2012-02-22-14-28-03-jpg
    Your code running: http://twitpic.com/8nc3s1
    Last edited by BHXSpecter; 02-22-2012 at 01:41 PM.

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