RFI - C++ information or "Where do I begin?" for the new programmer.

[Elmo]

some professors said it's perfectly OK to mix C and C++. Others would give an automatic "F" grade if stdio.h or any standard C library was included in a C++ program

I'd chalk that up to different goals. If your goal as a professor is to get your students to learn C++, there can be some value in forcing them (through grades) to accomplish the task only using C++. A professor like that could compare this to another student turning in an assignment that was simply a C++ shell that executed in-line assembly code. It might work, but it doesn't teach the student very much about C++.

Contrast that goal with the real world, where you're trying to get something done. When that's your goal, you don't care about learning C++, you just want to accomplish your objective. With that goal, using C (or assembler or anything else) is most likely fine, as long as there are good reasons for doing what you did. I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions to this--for example, if a company is "standardized" on a particular language, they might want you to use only that language for long-term maintainability, even if you would prefer to use something else. In the grand scheme of things though, using a C library within a C++ program is probably not a big deal.

[mxedisn]

I had a prof like that.


I still can't figure out how to implement a "press any key to continue" functionality without appeal to getchar()


There just doesn't seem to be anyway to do it from iostreams


(Unless the any key is return)

[adenine!]

Originally posted by mxedisn
I had a prof like that.


I still can't figure out how to implement a "press any key to continue" functionality without appeal to getchar()


There just doesn't seem to be anyway to do it from iostreams


(Unless the any key is return)

Best I could do without cstdio, although I don't think he'd care for windows.h much more...

DWORD numRead;
HANDLE hStdin;
INPUT_RECORD buffer[1];

hStdin = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE); 

while (true)
{
	ReadConsoleInput(hStdin, buffer, 1, &numRead);
	if (numRead && buffer[0].EventType == KEY_EVENT)
		break;
}

[toric]

You might try starting with C# since it uses C like code but is safer for beginners. You can start making GUI apps from day one by using the drag and drop forms and tools.
If you really are determined to learn C++ though here are some books I used to teach myself C++ .
"A First Book of C++" by Gary Bronson
"C++ How to Program" by Deitel and Deitel
"A book on C" by Al Kelley and Ira Pohl
"Developing Widows Application with Borland C++ 3.1" by James Mccord - I'm sure there is a newer version available now
"GNU C++ for Linux" by Tom Swan
"Using Visual C++ 5" by Kate Gregory
"Visual C++5 Unleashed" by Viktor Toth

That should get you started

[pocketrocket]

I'm a n00blette when it comes to C or C++, I however took a VB course, a COBOL course, and a SQL/access course. VB has it downfall to...well...it can make for bad habits and that was very apparent when I hit cobol, I dont' know what C or C++ is like, but I found COBOL unforgiving when it came to errors. So anyone coming into the programming scene I would urge to follow the advice given here and probably skip VB and concentrate on something that gives you a better understanding of code and what it does exactly. I read an earlier post about once you learn one language, it is easy to learn another, this statement holds alot of weight. Since my formal training in cobol and crap, I have taught myself the basics of XML, HTML and a couple other various less known languages. I have alot of respect for the guys here that are able to keep SEQ going strong month after month, I do not know enough to do it and i'm glad they do

[Rhino73]

This is abit off topic as well but would you guys recommend an IDE for teaching a beginner or a generic text editor and the command line? Being a Java programmer I use netbeans but am curious if / at what point in teaching someone I should start them with an IDE and which IDEs would be best for a beinner (Eclipse has been recommended to me). My plan was to have them do a single hello world app using the command line to learn the basics of how the language works and then get them started with an IDE. Suggestions?

The first language I learned was Java. I would highly recommended it for a learning language (the syntax and semantics are nice IMO) except for some obvious pitfalls such as: you don't learn memory management or the usage of pointers. I do recommend Java however if you want to learn the OOP conecepts.

When I got to high school they had a few programming courses offered in VB but coming from a language like Java I really didn't feel it was a very good learning language.

My university starts its computer science majors off with a course in C. Personally I think a new programmer should learn a language that handles memory management for them first so they can get the basics down before they start with C.

[ieatacid]

I'm mostly self taught (aside from some online tutorials -- and also just do this as a hobby) but I've always used Microsoft's Visual Studio for Windows and KDevelop in Linux when I'm working on SEQ.

I know some people that code for a living that absolutely despise IDEs

[uRit1u2CBBA=]

I'm one of them In my job, I use C and use command-line "vi" to do the work.

I've just never found a good IDE that I like. Now that I'm in school again to learn more languages, I'll be forced to use one or two new ones. I hope I find one that I like lol

[BlueAdept]

Heh I havent touched C since the 80s when I used to use it for writing code for WWIV bulletin board.

I am better at assembly since I used to use it to "debug" software so it would work on my pc or for giving me better stats in the games I used to play. Anyone remember what int 13h was used for in OLD software?

[uRit1u2CBBA=]

LOL! You were one of the people writing WWIV!? I've played with that a little in trying to get my own system up and running in the early 90s. I eventually used Telegard and Regegade. That's funny!

[BlueAdept]

I used wwiv since the pascal days, when it went from v3 to v4 it migrated over to C.

Wayne Bell wrote it, I just did substantial modifications. If you were a registered owner, you could get to their mod section. I had about 50 mods appoved by Wayne and on his site. His C programming left a lot to be desired but it worked.

Teleguard was a direct rip off of wwiv. It was wwiv source modded, compiled and re-released as teleguard. There was an exploit that was found on WWIV, which a patch came out for. Since Teleguard was taken from wwiv, the flaw also existed on teleguard. A new version of Teleguard didn't come out for a while so the boards kept getting hacked. Most of the people running that ended up moving to a different bbs type.

WWIV is still around. It is open source now. http://wwiv.sourceforge.net/