Books or Internet?

[Moonraker101]

Which is your medium of preference when it comes to learning how to code and why?

[z05DSL3A]

Books from respected authors/publishers. I like a consistent single source when learning something new on the whole books do this better than websites. Once I have a solid base I can judge the worth of the internet results.

[vlad from moscow]

Books contain usually more complete and logically consistent material than articles in internet that cover some one question. On the other hand articles in internet can consider a question more deeply. So internet supplements books.:)

[G309216C]

Hmm...Books or Internet.

Books offer more professional code advice and information whereas online is littered by beginners teaching beginners and the information they supply tend to misinformed themselves therefore it is not very well.

Book tend to also have deeper\specific topics enclosed with perfect or almost perfect details while finding those specific topics tend to be quite hard to find even if you find those topics they are not very good and have very less or if not no explanations what happens and why they use it.

The final conclusion is more or less obvious, it is BOOKS but I will let you judge.

[Script Coder]

I usually learn from books I get from the internet, so what category is that?

[BHX]

Well you can learn from both internet and books. Though, the internet is unreliable (just because it is on the net doesn't make it true), but books can be just as bad as things on the internet (Schildt and D.S. Malik books, for example).

That said, some sites do have good information, but good books are ultimately always the best choice for learning technical and proper coding techniques.

[jwkNwA7f]

I like books better. They go into more detail, have more consistent and professional code, etc. Once I read a book and get good enough at what it is talking about, I'll go on the internet and try to learn even more about it.

[Paoletti301]

I agree with vlad, books are great for learning languages and algorithms, but if i run into a problem i cant figure out and isnt in a book i own, i always search the internet.

so as he said, internet supplements books

[vlad from moscow]

@cppprogrammer297

I like books better. They go into more detail, have more consistent and professional code

I doubt that books contain professional code. :)

[zb0S216C]

@Vlad: Really? I assure you that Herb Sutter's Exceptional C++ and Scott Meyers' Effective C++ -- to name a few -- contain excellent code samples, practices and advice.

_Wazzak

[vlad from moscow]

@Framework

Neither in Exceptional C++ nor in Effective C++ I see professional code. I can agree that there are professional advices but I do not see any professional code.

[zb0S216C]

@Vlad: Define "professional code."

_Wazzak

[Cheraphy]

Books in the form of PDF files.

[vlad from moscow]

@Framework

@Vlad: Define "professional code."

It is not enough to see for example three lines of code that to conclude that the code is professional.

For example I have looked now throw book of Herb Sutter "Exceptional C++'. There is the following code

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <map>
// other includes

using namespace std;

typedef map<int, int> M; // ??? - my comment


// other stuff

class CountColor
{
public:
   CountColor( M& cm, M& gm, int& cok )
       : cm_( cm ), gm_( gm ), cok_( cok ){}
   void operator ()( char c ) const
   { cok_ += min( cm_[c], gm_[c] ); }
private:
   M &cm_, &gm_;
   int& cok_;
};

// other stuff 

I can not call this code as professional. And the problem is not in the using directive. It is a bad idea to introduce typename M instead of std::map<int, int> because when you look throgh the class definition you can not say what M means. It would be much better to use directly std::map<int, int>/ It would be more informative for the reader of the class.
Take into account the free style of writing references

M &cm_, &gm_;
int& cok_;

Moreover using such identifiers with trailing underscore is a bad style, because such identifies only confuse readers.

[S6k9GNh0]

Both. I learned from a book but when something wasn't clear, I either spent time figuring it out by testing or by asking the internet.

[3qX21hU5]

I agree with you framework vlad it is annoying as hell to see very vague naming conventions that everyone seems to think is better because they save a few characters >_<.

Even though if they came back to the code a few months later they would waste a lot more time trying to figure out what they have coded.

As for professional code I don't really think you will see much of it in books. I am sure there is some out there that have some but usually it will be just explaining professional techiques.

[vlad from moscow]

@Zereo

I agree with you framework it is annoying as hell to see very vague naming conventions that everyone seems to think is better because they save a few characters >_<.

Would you like to agree with me?:)

[3qX21hU5]

Ahh shoot was just reading frameworks post in another thread before this sorry about that ;p.

EDIT: Or maybe it was this thead ohh gezz now I am really confused... lol

[z05DSL3A]

I'm still waiting for someone to define "professional code". Is it code written by a professional or are we equating it with production code?

[htirwin]

In the strictest definition, all book code is professional code; unless the book is non-for-profit.