> I swear it's taken me longer to figure out how to build and include libraries with CMake than learn C I had a similar experience learning C++. Learning the C

> I swear it's taken me longer to figure out how to build and include libraries with CMake than learn C I had a similar experience learning C++. Learning the C++ language isn't all that straightforward, but there are at least plenty of resources available. Build-systems felt much more like a black-box, until I'd hit them with a stick for long enough that they felt familiar. I started out with single-file C++ programs, invoking g++ manually with the appropriate flags for include directories and linking. I think that's probably the best way to go. Work up to proper build systems a little later on. Perhaps another good way to start off would be to just use an IDE, and ignore the build process while you're starting out.