, Please 
1
ArcticCode, on 13 July 2010 - 01:08 AM, said:
Not at all. I started reading the book with absolutely no programming experience whatsoever. I had no idea what a compiler was, source code, etc. As long as you don't tend to skim books like I do sometimes (accidentally), you should have no problem picking up the concepts. I recommend that you should manually enter each and every one of the examples into your compiler and compile it yourself. After that, you should try changing some lines and see what it does.
C++ and Visual C++ is no different from each other. Visual C++ is referring to the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler. Books shouldn't be all geared towards Windows programming because it would be harder to teach C++ like that. Instead, the books teach you concepts through console programs (the little programs that run under the command prompt). Windows programs are large and complex by nature (few hundred lines of code) so it would be difficult to teach C++ with 80% of the book containing code. After mastering all the basics of C++ through console programming, you can move on to Win32 (Windows) programming which you could easily adapt to by putting it all together.
Some code is cross-platform. If your code can be compiled on different operating systems and machines without error, your code is considered "portable". You may want to put some research into which headers and functions are portable and which aren't. As for system("pause"); or system("ANYTHING"), you should avoid this line because it isn't portable and it sometimes triggers the antivirus. It is also a heavy function. What it does is halt the program for a bit, go to the operating system, do all this stuff, exit OS, and return to program. I would assume that you use this line to keep the console window open. You should use cin.get(); at the end of your code (once or twice depending how the compiler you are using compiles code). All this does is wait for you to press the RETURN key.
I agree that this is a lot of knowledge but if you can use it in your program, it can be really fun. Also, the reason a lot of games are programmed and compiled in Visual C++ is because the compiler is amazing. There are many options on the compilation, linking, etc.
I forgot to mention another book that is free for download from the MSDN website called C++ Beginner's Guide by Herbert Schildt. He is a pretty well known programmer author who writes books on Java, C#, and other languages. I thought that the book was a much less intimidating book to read. It is an ebook and can be found here: http://msdn.microsof...r/cc305129.aspx
I wish you luck in your programming. Maybe you'll come up with something promising in the future
C++ and Visual C++ is no different from each other. Visual C++ is referring to the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler. Books shouldn't be all geared towards Windows programming because it would be harder to teach C++ like that. Instead, the books teach you concepts through console programs (the little programs that run under the command prompt). Windows programs are large and complex by nature (few hundred lines of code) so it would be difficult to teach C++ with 80% of the book containing code. After mastering all the basics of C++ through console programming, you can move on to Win32 (Windows) programming which you could easily adapt to by putting it all together.
Some code is cross-platform. If your code can be compiled on different operating systems and machines without error, your code is considered "portable". You may want to put some research into which headers and functions are portable and which aren't. As for system("pause"); or system("ANYTHING"), you should avoid this line because it isn't portable and it sometimes triggers the antivirus. It is also a heavy function. What it does is halt the program for a bit, go to the operating system, do all this stuff, exit OS, and return to program. I would assume that you use this line to keep the console window open. You should use cin.get(); at the end of your code (once or twice depending how the compiler you are using compiles code). All this does is wait for you to press the RETURN key.
I agree that this is a lot of knowledge but if you can use it in your program, it can be really fun. Also, the reason a lot of games are programmed and compiled in Visual C++ is because the compiler is amazing. There are many options on the compilation, linking, etc.
I forgot to mention another book that is free for download from the MSDN website called C++ Beginner's Guide by Herbert Schildt. He is a pretty well known programmer author who writes books on Java, C#, and other languages. I thought that the book was a much less intimidating book to read. It is an ebook and can be found here: http://msdn.microsof...r/cc305129.aspx
I wish you luck in your programming. Maybe you'll come up with something promising in the future
Wow, tons of useful information in that post. Thanks a lot for clearing up a lot of questions.
I never understood the system("pause") thing but yes, you're right about the use (to keep the window open). I didn't know it did anything else -- I always guessed that's *all* it did is keep it from closing.
Thanks again for the information though; it really is much appreciated.
