Reddit mentions of C++ Primer Plus

When I first started programming, I started with C++. C++ Primer Plus was my primary learning tool, and worked out great. I'm not a full time developer (mentioned as proof that it worked and I didn't wash out of programming)

C++ Primer Plus

I recently started learning C++ (and R) coming from Python and I've been using Prata's C++ Primer Plus. Although this book isn't geared towards financial engineers I think it's probably the best introductory programming book I've used and will be a great reference as well. Beware, the book is around 1200 pages.

Also, the book The Art of R Programming has a small (very small) section in it that discusses using R and C++ (and even Python) together. Probably not worth buying but like ultraspeedz said, there are some nasty pirates that have put the text out there.

I got my start by taking AP CS in high school. However, I had already gone to college and that was a while ago, so I read some books on the commute to/from work.

Initially, I read Sams Teach Yourself PHP, Mysql and Apache all in one to learn PHP.

Immediately afterward, I read Murach's Java Se 6 and Beginning Java Objects to learn Java.

Most recently, I read a portion of C++ Primer Plus, but got very sick of it. I've read most of Accelerated C++

I have a few other books on C# to read when the time comes to actually write code.

By the time I had read all of the above, I felt pretty confident on how to structure a program, regardless of language. As such, I was able to pick up Python and JavaScript quite easily just by reading online documentation at Python.org and W3Schools. When I'm writing a web app, I'll rely pretty heavily on PHP's and MySQL's online documentation to help me with whatever syntax quibbles I may have.

I still want to read Game Coding Complete and I'll probably want to find a few resources on programming within XCode.

They all tend to follow the same programming paradigms, to be honest. Java did a good job in getting me into an OOP mindset and C/C++ did a good job at helping me think about how to program things without layer of abstraction. Once I learned these concepts, it was pretty easy to get started with a new language. Programming in PHP can be super sloppy, but taking what I learned from other languages, I'm usually able to write fairly clean code in PHP (especially when I learned how to use classes).

I wouldn't recommend all of the books above, to be honest. I didn't have much ability to do online training at the time and compiled lists of books weren't nearly as useful at the time, so I relied mostly on Amazon book reviews. I'm sure you can find a few choice books on each language you want to learn and go that way. If you were to read books, I think Accelerated C++ is a good book, but works best if you already have some experience programming. I remember like Beginning Java Objects more than Murach's, though both are great as references (which is why they're both still in my bookshelf). C++ Primer Plus spends too much time teaching C and not enough time teaching C++ (you spend pages upon pages learning about C-style strings, aka char arrays, rather than just using the String Class, but I digress).

Ultimately, I could read a bunch about a language, but I never truly learned the language until I started writing in it. I've written a handful of programs just as proofs of concepts and I recommend you do the same while learning any language.

Get a book and learn the concepts... IMHO if you want to learn to be a better programmer you need to "learn how to learn". My biggest barrier to learning programming was not having the right teacher/ideas formatted in a clear and understandable way. Then I found stephen prata, opened up programming for me.

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-5th-Stephen-Prata/dp/0672326973/

If you can't learn programming with that book then you should find something else to do with your life.

7-zip uses a mix of C, C++ and assembly. Unless you have experience with any of these languages, I would highly recommend starting with something much simpler.

I would say if you're trying to learn programming, you need to strip away all the extra 'stuff' that gets packaged up to make a production system. Don't worry about the GUI, and put WPF and C# to the side (for the time being). Start with something simple that will allow you to learn variables, functions, types, control flow, etc. A lot of people recommend Python, and that's a fine place to start. Any language where you can open a new file, write a few lines of code, and see a result would be ideal (Lua, Ruby, Javascript, etc).

More to the point of your question, GUI design is hard. There are all kinds of issues that have to be taken into account: event callbacks from the 'worker' code to let the interface know something changed, threading issues (does the interface lock up while the backend is working?), does the 7z file format even lend itself to parsing just a directory listing without decompressing the entire file?... There is a lot there, and it's not a good starting point. It's something that you can move toward as you learn the basics, though. And I always like looking through other codebases looking for good ideas.

If you're really serious about specifically working with 7-zip, the code is available at their website. You'll need to download the source code from 7-zip.org, then you'll need C Primer Plus and C++ Primer Plus. These are the best 'intro to...' books that I've found for C and C++. You're looking at a few months of reading and experimenting, and a lot of frustration. You're not only going to learn the languages, but also the Windows API that will allow you to interact with the folder views. These are somewhat stubbed out in the 7-zip source, but the specific view you're talking about would need to be written from scratch.

Regardless, it sounds like a fun project and if you put in the time I'm sure you'll get some benefit from it. Just be aware that this is trying to paddle against the current, and it is easier to take a step by step approach (in my opinion).

It's not that bad.

Accelerated is quite a bit better but somehow I feel as if I had started with that book, with 0 programming experience, I would have been completely lost. Accelerated is by far the best one I have read yet.

And that is exactly why I recommend reading these books to people. Information online can often be misleading, wrong, old, or all of the above, at least in a book which is praised by so many people, you know that the info which you are getting is top value. I know that learing C++ can be a bit difficult, but remember that you do not need to know all of it at once (heck - nobody knows all of C++, and even Template Metaprogramming was kind of discovered by accident ). I hear that Accelerated C++ is a good book to start from if you already know some programming in another language. C++ Primer Plus is huge, but also good.

The best C book I have ever used http://knking.com/books/c/
(second edition: http://knking.com/books/c2/index.html)

A very good C++ book: http://www.amazon.com/C-Primer-Plus-5th-Edition/dp/0672326973

For everything else, cprogramming.com

If your time is free, stick to parsing 60+ free solutions. If your time is money, respect yourself and put down $20 for one of the above. At least visit a library if you're broke, as these are typically available in most university libraries.

Regarding that website... "Discover the free and best IT stuff"? That site reeks of bad grammar, bad ads, and bad design

Huh. After reading this thread, I'm pretty happy that Stack Overflow did not exist when I started programming in the early 2000s. All I found were sketchy pay-for-answers sites, which I did not trust (I was also a broke 13 year old), so I was forced to go buy a giant book on C++ and read it all the way through. this one

That gave me a great base of patterns to work with and I was able to not pay any attention in college because I already learned most of the material.

I do love Stack Overflow for shit like "How do I fix this obscure OpenGL error?" though, it has become an irreplaceable tool in my toolset.

I'd recommend this in lieu of any shortcuts. C++ is more complex than Game Maker. What you're asking for is something that you can cobble together as you go along, when in reality you have to have a pretty firm understanding of the language as a whole to make anything of substance.

http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-5th-Stephen-Prata/dp/0672326973 and motivation to understand and learn.

I've found this book to be quite a good book and is quite complete. It may be a bit of a jump into the deep end, but I feel as though they explain things simply enough, piece by piece.

http://www.amazon.com/C-Primer-Plus-5th-Edition/dp/0672326973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333572620&sr=8-1

Also, C/C++ are GREAT first languages to learn. You have the opportunity to really understand how the computer itself functions with these languages, whereas with higher level languages, this type of understanding is quite easily lost as it becomes less important. It really depends on why you're learning it as to if it's a good first language or not.

I've had to use C++ on and off. This book has been pretty good.

I'd recommend C Primer Plus, though to be honest it would be a much better investment to study C++ with C++ Primer Plus from the same author.

Do you have to go with C? C++ is better for beginners while still maintaining all the C things. If you absolutely have to go with C (which I'm assuming you are studying for coding systems - most likely embedded, or to maintain legacy code), the book I pointed out should start you out nicely.

If it is programming you want to learn, I'd recommend trying your hands at Java or Python or any interpreted OOP-focused language first. Java has very nice IDEs (Eclipse, NetBeans, etc.); it has its roots in C/C++ so it should help making the transition back and forth. C/C++ can be a mess to get the build environment set up correctly if you are not using an IDE like Visual Studio.

If you are in college, a lot of these technical books are free through your online library.