Thread: A Little Overwhelmed..

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    A Little Overwhelmed..

    Hi there.

    I haven't done any coding, other than convenience programs on my good ol' TI-83, in a while. I used to work on C++ console applications pretty frequently. I thought that would put me on the right learning track (I'm 17 and intend to major in CS), but I was recently flipped on my head when a friend gave me a copy of VS2008. Just looking at the environment makes me feel in over my head, it's so much different from what I'm used to (Codeblocks IDE). Don't laugh, but I even gave up on the Hello World tutorial. It's that bad.

    My question to you, oh knowledgeable ones, is this:

    Would it be better to improve my programming skills through console apps, or to bang my head against Visual Studio?

    Thanks for your time
    Last edited by SensualCake; 06-01-2010 at 10:47 PM. Reason: Typical late-night typo

  2. #2
    Registered User C_ntua's Avatar
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    Be patient. Think how many people managed to learn in VS. Why not you? Everybody is overwhelmed a bit. Keep trying with a tutorial

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    Registered User Joelito's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SensualCake View Post
    Hi there.

    I haven't done any coding, other than convenience programs on my good ol' TI-83, in a while. I used to work on C++ console applications pretty frequently. I thought that would put me on the right learning track (I'm 17 and intend to major in CS), but I was recently flipped on my head when a friend gave me a copy of VS2008. Just looking at the environment makes me feel in over my head, it's so much different from what I'm used to (Codeblocks IDE). Don't laugh, but I even gave up on the Hello World tutorial. It's that bad.

    My question to you, oh knowledgeable ones, is this:

    Would it be better to improve my programming skills through console apps, or to bang my head against Visual Studio?

    Thanks for your time
    Hello! I use codeblocks too and I love it.. try simple things, print stuff, get user's data, some loops, coditional statements, etc.
    * PC: Intel Core 2 DUO E6550 @ 2.33 GHz with 2 GB RAM: Archlinux-i686 with xfce4.
    * Laptop: Intel Core 2 DUO T6600 @ 2.20 GHz with 4 GB RAM: Archlinux-x86-64 with xfce4.

  4. #4
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    May I ask what version of VS you got? If it's the Express edition, consider getting the 2010 version of the IDE.
    Ala your question, I don't think it should be so difficult to get used to the IDE. Read a tutorial on how to get started and start coding. You can ignore everything in there that you don't know/don't need. You can always brush up on your knowledge later.
    Full-fledged IDEs, like most big software, can be intimidating at first. But usually there are tutorials for every one of them. It makes it easy to get started.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    May I ask what version of VS you got? If it's the Express edition, consider getting the 2010 version of the IDE.
    Ala your question, I don't think it should be so difficult to get used to the IDE. Read a tutorial on how to get started and start coding. You can ignore everything in there that you don't know/don't need. You can always brush up on your knowledge later.
    Full-fledged IDEs, like most big software, can be intimidating at first. But usually there are tutorials for every one of them. It makes it easy to get started.
    It's not the express version, but I think I may start out with Visual C++ Express instead.

    Thanks for the advice. I figured as much, but it's nice to hear it from someone else.

  6. #6
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Hehe. Everytime they upgrade Visual Studio that 'overwhelmed' feeling returns. I work with graphics and now they have completely overhauled DX9 in DX10 and DX11. Talk about feeling overwhelmed.
    If the 'overwhelmed' feeling ever goes away forever then you aren't challenging yourself enough.

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    Registered User Joelito's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba View Post
    Hehe. Everytime they upgrade Visual Studio that 'overwhelmed' feeling returns. I work with graphics and now they have completely overhauled DX9 in DX10 and DX11. Talk about feeling overwhelmed.
    If the 'overwhelmed' feeling ever goes away forever then you aren't challenging yourself enough.
    Agree, once my self a Windows user, the last Visual Studio IDe that I used was VS2005, and the service packs where huge, I mean...you can always use commandline make files....
    * PC: Intel Core 2 DUO E6550 @ 2.33 GHz with 2 GB RAM: Archlinux-i686 with xfce4.
    * Laptop: Intel Core 2 DUO T6600 @ 2.20 GHz with 4 GB RAM: Archlinux-x86-64 with xfce4.

  8. #8
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    The fact that 2010 brings C++0x features and a faster launch/exit debugger and improved intellisense makes the upgrade well worth it IMHO.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  9. #9
    Just a pushpin. bernt's Avatar
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    Agree, once my self a Windows user, the last Visual Studio IDe that I used was VS2005, and the service packs where huge, I mean...you can always use commandline make files....
    The Platform SDK installer is seventh-level-of-hell awful. I'm just going to put that out there.
    Programming in Windows isn't too bad (though I'm partial to GTK) but wouldn't one think that a programmer's tool (I'm referring the Platform SDK installer) would be a little more... well programmed?
    I've had more than a few really bad experiences with that behemoth. It's unresponsive. It downloads for a good 3 hours on my connection. It takes about 15 minutes to cancel the installation (this is something I never understood - why does it always take SO LONG to cancel an installation?). And if you try to kill the process to forego the cancellation procedure bad things happen and you have to start all over again. And a 1.5 Gig install size? DirectX is 500MB - I can understand... I guess. It's a big library and there is lots of sample content. But how on earth does the Windows SDK take up 1.5 Gigs?

    Sorry. I had to rant. I'm done now - I'll go back to my corner.
    Consider this post signed

  10. #10
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    The reason it takes so long to cancel is because it rolls back any changes it made prior to cancellation. But I agree that Microsoft installers are really bad.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  11. #11
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    I recently installed a new version of VS to have a look. Spent a merry twenty minutes clearing away all the new windows and "helpful" doodads to get back to my comfort zone: project files on the left, text editor main view, build/debug on the bottom.

  12. #12
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    But I agree that Microsoft installers are really bad.
    I'll second that. But to be fair they are attempting to leave your system in the exact state it was prior to doing the install. Other install programs aren't so kind and often leave 'junk' behind without you knowing it.

  13. #13
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    They tend to do their job, but they are annoyingly slow and uninformative. Much more so that any other installer.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  14. #14
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    I think additionally part of the confusion could be that in the VS.NET and higher versions there are a bunch of options related to the managed C++ extension that are part of .NET vs. the standard unmanaged C++ stuff. Make sure to either select a blank project or one of the (I believe) win32 projects and that will get you back to a more manageable experience.

  15. #15
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    I think additionally part of the confusion could be that in the VS.NET and higher versions there are a bunch of options related to the managed C++ extension that are part of .NET vs. the standard unmanaged C++ stuff. Make sure to either select a blank project or one of the (I believe) win32 projects and that will get you back to a more manageable experience.
    I find nothing confusing about the .NET options.

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