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I am reading through Sams teach yourself c++ in 21 days. I've found out I really only understand and fully comprehend, when I experience the code. (Writing it out.). It feels like I'm skimming through it, just to find out the command of the code, write it out, and then define it for myself. (I'm weird D:.) Though I'm having to look over examples, while programming. I guess most programmers do this until it's etched in memory for good?...
Experience is your guide. The books teach the basics; it's up to you to use them and in doing so, to learn them.
Practice doing examples and programs that puts to test what you've learned - that's the way you'll learn everything.
Yeah I haven't really did that, with each section. So I'm going to start over, and re-read everything and do a lot more examples, and programs. T__T ; I got semi-lazy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elysia
I'd check out the book recommendation thread. I used to have that book and I have to say I did not like it one bit. Many others recommend against it, but there are better books that I think make it easier to learn from than this one.
Well, it's like taking notes in class. Just hearing what the instructor is saying isn't enough. By putting it in your own words with your own hand you gain a better understanding and memory. Nothing weird about this at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Validinfection
You'd be weird if you could read a book from cover to cover and then just sit down and write perfect code.
Books like these will mostly concentrate on syntax and the various features of the language, but will almost never tell you about good programming practices for that language or develop your logic in algorithms or cover deeper topics like communicating over different media..experience is your only guide :)
'Practise makes...' perfect isn't the right word though. '...it helps... a lot'.
[off topic]For those who remember Sunlight and I. We're getting married! [/off topic]
Books are good references to have while you are writing programs, but I agree, you only fully learn the language (and the methods) through experience. Books can also help in other areas, e.g. to give you ideas of little programs to write for practice.
As a slight aside, I wonder if anybody could make any money from a book that is just ideas for programs to write for practice while learning. Perhaps each entry would be an outline of the program and what it's expected to do.
I think so, yes. Consider all the people who come here asking for stuff to do.
i didn't always know the libraries/methods to use for certain cases and didn't even know some existed so i'd often just write my own version of everything first and inadvertently picked up on STL stuff as i'd recreate everything.
the only thing i -really- learned from books are different perspectives to approaching programming concepts from linear to object oriented, to higher conceptual models like neural nets and particle systems.
what you learn from books should be ways of approach, not learning the actual language. the language you should pick up by practice. just get your basics from websites like this. this site has all the tutorials you'll ever need. and these good forum folk will fill you in on the details as you post your code.
books can't teach you a language, only experience can.
my proof, how many of you have every looked at 300 lines of code and go "oh i get it!" no one has. you WRITE 300 lines of code and FINALLY go "Holy **** i GET it!!!!"
;-)
I'm happy that you broke 300 lines for the first time (no sarcasm).Quote:
Originally Posted by simpleid
But comprehending 300 lines of code in an extremely short time is something C professionals do practically on a daily basis. It's not exactly a large amount of code.
ok brewbuck, you nailed me, har har.
i wasn't being serious. i was making a point. yea you totally nailed me i've never in 8 years of programming exceeded 300 lines of code.
i'm glad you enjoy bragging. it's kind of impolite actually.
but regardless, i was *just* making a point. because he is a beginner, i considered that. and beginners will hit 300 lines of code and be proud.
ass. >:-p
I can't remember being very joyful over 300 lines, but I was very proud when I hit 1000 lines of code for the first time as a novice BASIC programmer. I abandoned the project at about 1100th line.
I agree that you probably won't learn programming basics simply by reading, copying & pasting or even typing code from a book. When I started I would read a chapter and the source codes, then close it and try to write this program from memory. In addition I would do all the exercises and set myself small tasks.
When you are somewhat experienced, I think you can gain from just looking at examples. You'll understand all or most that is going on, it's just that you may not have thought about doing things that way, or for example wasn't sure how the library was meant to be used etc.