Tips for learning C++

Antony1995

New member
Hello everyone,
Trying to be more and more active on the forum, so I thought I would ask for any tips and tricks you might have for someone that want's to learn C++.

I've been wanting to learn how to code ever since I got into computers, just found it a bit hard staying motivated but this time round I'm not going to give up so easily. I'm choosing C++ as it's a good multi platform language.

So any tips/tricks you can give me will be much appreciated!

I have the Beginning Programming With C++ For Dummies book, but I'm not really getting any where with it.

Thanks for reading,
Antony :)
 
Have you looked at cplusplus.com here is some beginner help have you got Notepad++ it's a cracking bit of easy fast access software. ;-)
 
I can't really help with the 'helping' side of things but to stay motivated I'd say just try to take things as they come and don't burn yourself out by just repetitively doing a task. Try to have fun with it, I've just had to do nearly 20 hours worth of controlled assessments for my GCSE computer science course and I found myself getting burnt out insanely quick, I started to have a bit of fun and challenging myself to come up with better ways to code to keep interested. Hope I help :).
 
If you're on Windows download Visual Studio 2013 Express, it's free and it is the best IDE for Windows by a mile. I would recommend using a YouTube playlist to learn. There are so many C++ series out there now.

Once you've got the basics down and feel comfortable with the IDE, create a little project for yourself. Start simple with a console program.

It depends on why you wanted to learn C++ in the first step as to where you go after that. For example, writing games is very different to writing software. That's not to say they are mutually exclusive but they require different specialist topics, i.e. games use a lot of 3D math.
 
Thanks guys!

Have you looked at cplusplus.com here is some beginner help have you got Notepad++ it's a cracking bit of easy fast access software. ;-)

I haven't looked at that website, I will do now. I have code:blocks comes with a compiler. :P

I can't really help with the 'helping' side of things but to stay motivated I'd say just try to take things as they come and don't burn yourself out by just repetitively doing a task. Try to have fun with it, I've just had to do nearly 20 hours worth of controlled assessments for my GCSE computer science course and I found myself getting burnt out insanely quick, I started to have a bit of fun and challenging myself to come up with better ways to code to keep interested. Hope I help :).

Indeed that's what I plan on doing before I tried to learn everything all at once which never works :P

If you're on Windows download Visual Studio 2013 Express, it's free and it is the best IDE for Windows by a mile. I would recommend using a YouTube playlist to learn. There are so many C++ series out there now.

Once you've got the basics down and feel comfortable with the IDE, create a little project for yourself. Start simple with a console program.

It depends on why you wanted to learn C++ in the first step as to where you go after that. For example, writing games is very different to writing software. That's not to say they are mutually exclusive but they require different specialist topics, i.e. games use a lot of 3D math.

Just installing Visual Studio now, and I want to get into software development there's already enough games developers haha :P I will give YouTube a look and see what's about.
 
Just installing Visual Studio now, and I want to get into software development there's already enough games developers haha :P I will give YouTube a look and see what's about.

Ok, software is a much easier route. After the basics you'll want to pick a simple GUI framework and get yourself used to working with handling data from UI widgets.
 
C++ is good if you want multi platform stuff, but man, memory management ._.

C# day job here, mostly anyway. LINQ is amazing if you're going to be working with databases a lot.
 
C++ is good if you want multi platform stuff, but man, memory management ._.

C# day job here, mostly anyway. LINQ is amazing if you're going to be working with databases a lot.

Memory management is easy and GCs should all die :)
 
If you want to get into making video games at all then i would recommend downloading Unity and following Guides on Youtube from Brackeys. He has full on guides on every step from basic 2D games to 3D games. I'm about to start getting into it as well.
 
If you want to get into making video games at all then i would recommend downloading Unity and following Guides on Youtube from Brackeys. He has full on guides on every step from basic 2D games to 3D games. I'm about to start getting into it as well.

He said he doesn't want to be a game developer lol.
 
+1 on Visual Studio as the IDE. Start with C++ and move towards a higher level language like C# if you want to develop applications and the such.

There's a YouTuber called Barnacules who's done a few C# coding videos that are pretty good for beginners. You'll probably pick things up quite quickly since you have some programming experience.



 
+1 on Visual Studio as the IDE. Start with C++ and move towards a higher level language like C# if you want to develop applications and the such.

There's a YouTuber called Barnacules who's done a few C# coding videos that are pretty good for beginners. You'll probably pick things up quite quickly since you have some programming experience.

Although I do like Barnacules I've found that his recent code videos are a bit misleading in the way that he explains stuff, but, if you want to get straight to the point then I think they are ok.
 
Im an IOS Developer (objective c) i don't know the C++ syntax very well but if you have concept questions id be happy to help.

Biggest tips i'd say are;

1. use descriptive method/variable names and comment often.

2. If you are following a tutorial and are told to implement/write something you don't understand implement it and carry on as you may understand it the 5th/6th time you do. Programming is what they call "hard learning" as in, there are concepts that only exist within its self, if i where to teach you about a historical war for example your already half way to learning about it because you know what a war is.

3. Your are gunna get pissed off, just keep at it. You'll find the bug/bugs your are looking for are never where you think they are lol , use print statements, breakpoints and every other debug method known to man to narrow it down.

OOP is amazing the more you get into it the better it gets.
 
Although I do like Barnacules I've found that his recent code videos are a bit misleading in the way that he explains stuff, but, if you want to get straight to the point then I think they are ok.

Yeah, they're pretty good for a quick and dirty guide. It would obviously be beneficial to use multiple sources to corroborate certain things.
 
Thanks guys I really appreciate all the suggestions! :)

If you want to get into making video games at all then i would recommend downloading Unity and following Guides on Youtube from Brackeys. He has full on guides on every step from basic 2D games to 3D games. I'm about to start getting into it as well.

I might look into games later on but I mainly want to get in to software development.

Im an IOS Developer (objective c) i don't know the C++ syntax very well but if you have concept questions id be happy to help.

Biggest tips i'd say are;

1. use descriptive method/variable names and comment often.

2. If you are following a tutorial and are told to implement/write something you don't understand implement it and carry on as you may understand it the 5th/6th time you do. Programming is what they call "hard learning" as in, there are concepts that only exist within its self, if i where to teach you about a historical war for example your already half way to learning about it because you know what a war is.

3. Your are gunna get pissed off, just keep at it. You'll find the bug/bugs your are looking for are never where you think they are lol , use print statements, breakpoints and every other debug method known to man to narrow it down.

OOP is amazing the more you get into it the better it gets.

Thank's I will keep this in mind.
 
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If you want to get into making video games at all then i would recommend downloading Unity and following Guides on Youtube from Brackeys. He has full on guides on every step from basic 2D games to 3D games. I'm about to start getting into it as well.

If your looking at unity have a look at quill18creates he goes through complete games in unity
 
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