Looking for some learning advice...

I have just spent a couple of months learning a great deal of C (ANSI, trying to avoid C++ for that while) and think I am ready to move on to C++. I had learned a little bit of C++ before I even started digging deep into C, and think that picking up C++ from a more advanced and indepth book should now be a breeze.

anyways after reading some tried and true C tutorials and referances I now have a basic knowledge of UNIX. I do know that C was a language designed for the UNIX operating system, and that a great deal of UNIX functions are included in the C standard library. I have never used UNIX, or any UNIX based OS, and have been with Windows since 3.x. but somehow I feel that UNIX is where I should start my true C/C++ adventures to get a real grip of C/C++ programming. basically I want to get DEEP into the realm of C/C++ programming, and feel that if I do this in Windows and then move to UNIX/linux that I will be going backwards. I don't know what makes me feel this way. I am eager to get into heavy Win32 API but I am also eager to try a UNIX implementation.

I've concluded that a place with some very talented Win32 and Linux C/C++ programmers would be a good place to ask this. So I am looking for the professional C/C++ programmers opinions on this. Do you think that if I want to get DEEP into C/C++ programming that I should first have a firm understanding of UNIX/linux? and if so, what UNIX/Linux implementation would you recommend for a beginner?

advice here is greatly appreciated. thank you in advance :cool: !

Why do you want to use UNIX? C++ has plenty of stuff for windows. I wouldent suggest trying to move from Windows to Unix and just start programming, its a pritty weird step.

Try and do some stuff with C++ in a console first, its slightly different from C, and comes with different headers. But if you really want to try UNIX programming, get some type of unix OS and get used to it, or you'll be hopelessly lost when you try to program it :P.

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Originally Posted by sl34k

Do you think that if I want to get DEEP into C/C++ programming that I should first have a firm understanding of UNIX/linux?

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That is totally unnecessary. If you want to get deep into Unix programming, then you should, though, but if you're programming just for Windows, no. C/C++ as languages are platform independent -- they and their standard libraries don't have anything to do with Unix, per se. They have the notion of 'standard input' and 'standard output' (and files), but that's it.

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Originally Posted by sl34k

and if so, what UNIX/Linux implementation would you recommend for a beginner?

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Mac OS X.

thanks for your replies!

maybe I will just stick with console apps for a while. I guess I just want experience in a "system" environment, but don't see why I can't do that with commands in MSDOS (like Unix "system calls").

For myself, I think you would do quite well to start working on Linux. It's free and it allows you to get into the actual nitty-gritty of a system. If you wish to become a hacker, to learn of the deep magics, you must learn to program on *nix systems. As for which distro, I'd recommend Ubuntu or Mandriva as excellent choices for new users. Mandriva especially; it's well-supported and will take you by the hand. This is an excellent quiz for finding the right one for you. While this is an article on which ones are good for new users. Good luck to you.

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Originally Posted by darthbob88

This is an excellent quiz for finding the right one for you.

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It worked for me! Great quiz! Ive added it to my bookmarks!

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Originally Posted by Maragato

It worked for me! Great quiz! Ive added it to my bookmarks!

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Jolly good. Now *puts on "angry priest face"* shalt thou repent from the unholy spawn of Satan, that is Windows? Shalt thou migrate thy computer to Linux wholeheartedly, that thou mayst enjoy the freedoms of the GPL and the efficiency of the gcc? Yes! Thou shalt do so and thou shalt do so most righteously! Repent!

Semi-seriously, I'd recommend getting your computer dual-booted, Windows and Linux side-by-side so that you can dip your toe in, metaphorically. Besides which, you very probably have some piece of hardware that doesn't work with Linux out of the box. For that, you need Windows. But not for long!

yugh, just get another computer to run Linux.
And get a Mac while you're at it, and a Sparcstation (I wish, and yes they are both on my wishlist) :)

hmm, excluding Ubuntu because it's too slow but including Debian which is much the same thing in the results?

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Originally Posted by darthbob88

Semi-seriously, I'd recommend getting your computer dual-booted, Windows and Linux side-by-side so that you can dip your toe in, metaphorically. Besides which, you very probably have some piece of hardware that doesn't work with Linux out of the box. For that, you need Windows. But not for long!

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You are praying in the wrong church, I have a single boot machine, gentoo only ;)

I took that quiz and it recommended SuSE linux. anyone here use this particular distro and can tell me what you think of it?

said my computer might be too slow (most likely too: 800MHz, 64MB RAM, 20GB HDD) for the following:
Mandriva
Kubuntu
Ubuntu

EDIT: my HDD wouldn't be enough for a dual boot, so it would have to be one or the other (Windows or Linux :( ).

and that I may require linux knowledge for the following:
Debian
Fedora

gonna read that other article now. thanks for the post darthbob88.

I've Ubuntu running quite nicely on a Celeron 400 with 196MB RAM and 2MB videoram.
OK, I don't run a lot of graphical user interfaces on it, but it's no slower now than when I had Windows 2000 on it in the past (though it does require a lot more harddisk space, currently the OS alone uses 90% of the diskspace in that machine, some 3.5GB, where Windows 2000 uses something like 1GB).