What should I learn next?

[Sam034]

Hey, I was wondering if you guys could help me. I just finished this book called "C++ All-In-One For Dummies( the 7 books in 1 edition)." It was about 800 pages of material starting with the very basics of c++.

I basically know all of the fundamentals at this point (I think at least). I actually haven't gotten to any "non-text" related programs yet. I would like to start shapes and that sort of stuff if possible.

What would you guys do if you were in my position? Any books, libraries or anything specific that I should be focusing on?

ps: My school teaches Java so I have to do this all on my own. All of my friends suck at coding and don't use c++, which is why I am somewhat clueless on how to approach c++ as I develop.

[Phantom139]

If you're referring to "application" interface programming, have a look at the "Windows Programming" section of these forums.

[Albatross]

Ready to move on?

If you want to leave console programming, you will probably need another library. For application development, I tend to recommend Qt, simply because it's cross platform and it has practically everything you'd ever need for creating an application (though I admit it's a bit large because of this).


-Albatross

[zb0S216C]

Well, you could start doing audio programming, 2-D and/or 3-D graphics programming with OpenGL or DirectX, normal Windows applications, or network programming. There is loads you can do with C++.

[ultifinitus]

Well after I got the fundamentals I focused on lots of other libraries, specifically and in order:

Allegro, SDL, WinSock, BASS, and SFML.

I've now mastered most of the above libraries(as well as unix sockets). Currently I'm learning OpenGL, and programming in Objective-c for the iPhone.

Just figure out where you want to go now, do you want to make games, professional applications, utilities, or work on embedded systems, or something else? Lot's of possibilities =)

[Sam034]

I really want to get into making games. I don't care how many years it takes I got time.

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far. It is really making my life easier :)

[Albatross]

Games, hmm?

A good library to start with is SFML, a link to which I've posted below. I can also vouch for Irrlicht, although the latter has no audio or networking and isn't designed as ideally as it could have been for games.
http://sfml-dev.org/

Enjoy!

-Albatross

EDIT: 2100 posts, and counting.

[ultifinitus]

fantastic on the game goal, I agree it's a fun endeavor.

Second SFML, waaay easy to start with, and you can be up and running pretty quick. When you start I would recommend reading through all of the tutorials and following along with your own code. When I started I would read the tutorial several times and try to write code without reading the tutorials. It worked well for me =)


_{If you would like any personal help, I'd be glad to lend a hand just send me an email [e-mail]
Probably won't need it though!}

[Jabu]

You will find QT interesting

[3hM2Nwbp]

You might also consider looking into some of the boost libraries (which will soon be standard C++). The most widely used one (in my opinion) being their smart pointers. Other interesting libraries include their a(synchronous) networking (asio), bind, regex, and concurrency just to name a few.

www.boost.org

Beware it's easy to get lost in some of the boost headers. The library compiles on most systems, but the downside to that is how the preprocessor directives seem to have invaded the files with countless workarounds.

[quirkyusername]

Maybe learn about patterns, something which I've failed to get around to properly yet...

[Sam034]

It seems like SFML is the first library I should learn.

There are so many libraries, it is hard to just choose one.

Is there some sort of order in the libraries I learn. For example, I probably can't understand some libraries if they are to advanced.

Thanks again for the input. I didn't think I would get so many good responses so fast. This is a great forum.