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The language is so vast and intractable: how does one start? Should I master C first (pointers and such?) and then get into C++ with its Turing complete templat

The language is so vast and intractable: how does one start? Should I master C first (pointers and such?) and then get into C++ with its Turing complete templating language and such in order to be able to be competent enough to grok all kinds of code written in C++? Or should I focus on one iteration like C++11 or 98 or?

mempko 6y ago
Modern C++ looks less like C and more like python. I would not start there. Get Bjarne's latest books.
non-entity 6y ago
I've asked a few times how one would go about learning C++ and most of the time the answer I get is you don't
- ncmncm 6y ago
  You are asking in the wrong places. Good books include Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language", Josuttis, "The C++ Standard Library".
runevault 6y ago
Effective Modern C++ is an excellent book to help get an understanding of a lot of the core concepts of new C++. Though when I started relearning C++ (I studied it in college back in the late 90s/early 2000s) I first did Effective C++ THEN Effective Modern because EC++ teaches things that are still true, and those that are overruled are covered in EMC++.
josefx 6y ago
> Should I master C first (pointers and such?) That only means that you have to unlearn a lot of bad habits. For example malloc/free should not be used in c++ code unless you call into a c library that uses the counterpart. Even the c++ equivalent new/delete pairs should only be used if it cannot be avoided. > and then get into C++ with its Turing complete templating language and such in order to be able to be competent enough to grok all kinds of code written in C++? I am quite sure I used Java collections before I had a grasp on its generics. You don't have to be able to implement std::vector<int> to understand that it is a collection of int. You might have to be told to avoid std::vector<bool>, but that is more because it is an unholy design failure that should have gone the way of the trigraph a long time ago .
- gigatexal 6y ago
  Finally some hopeful words. Thanks!

mempko 6y ago

Modern C++ looks less like C and more like python. I would not start there. Get Bjarne's latest books.

non-entity 6y ago

I've asked a few times how one would go about learning C++ and most of the time the answer I get is you don't

ncmncm 6y ago
You are asking in the wrong places. Good books include Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language", Josuttis, "The C++ Standard Library".

runevault 6y ago

Effective Modern C++ is an excellent book to help get an understanding of a lot of the core concepts of new C++. Though when I started relearning C++ (I studied it in college back in the late 90s/early 2000s) I first did Effective C++ THEN Effective Modern because EC++ teaches things that are still true, and those that are overruled are covered in EMC++.

josefx 6y ago

> Should I master C first (pointers and such?) That only means that you have to unlearn a lot of bad habits. For example malloc/free should not be used in c++ code unless you call into a c library that uses the counterpart. Even the c++ equivalent new/delete pairs should only be used if it cannot be avoided. > and then get into C++ with its Turing complete templating language and such in order to be able to be competent enough to grok all kinds of code written in C++? I am quite sure I used Java collections before I had a grasp on its generics. You don't have to be able to implement std::vector<int> to understand that it is a collection of int. You might have to be told to avoid std::vector<bool>, but that is more because it is an unholy design failure that should have gone the way of the trigraph a long time ago .

gigatexal 6y ago
Finally some hopeful words. Thanks!