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>> I bought a copy of "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" at a CompUSA Some of those books were laughably bad. But thing I miss from back then, was the feeli

>> I bought a copy of "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" at a CompUSA Some of those books were laughably bad. But thing I miss from back then, was the feeling that the book was going to be the key to getting you started writing whatever crazy idea you had for a program in your head. I think the last time I had that feeling was walking out of Microcenter with a new MacBook and an iPod Touch, ready to make the next Angry Birds...

tombert 3y ago
I actually didn't think that the Sams books were so bad, albeit a bit misleading if you think you're really gonna grok C or C++ in 24 hours. I learned C first in high school because I found a pirated copy of "Learn C in 24 Hours" online, and I actually felt that they did a reasonably good job getting me started, though if I recall correctly some of their examples with pointers and memory management were actually incorrect. Still, it was enough to make programming interesting to me, and when I dropped out of college the first time I was able to salvage a somewhat decent career because of that interest.
- ozim 3y ago
  For me that is a nice discussion on its own - for me there’s multiple levels of knowing X - so anything, Yes in 24h you are not going to learn enough to contribute to Linux kernel - but also will be ahead of something like 80% of general population.
- phs318u 3y ago
  Ah the Sams books. I once thought that writing tech books was going to be a career (having contributed a single chapter to “Microsoft SQL Server Programming Unleashed” by Papa, Shepker et al. I was one of the Al’s). I think the “in 24 hours” thing was more a case of “I’m going to tell you everything I know about XYZ in 24 hours”. Still, I have so many fond memories from the late 80s and 90s spending countless lunchtimes at McGills or the Technical Bookshop in Melbourne (now since long gone), flipping through tech magazines and wondering which of the many weighty tech tomes I’d spend my precious hard-earned on.
jamesbfb 3y ago
> But thing I miss from back then, was the feeling that the book was going to be the key to getting you started writing whatever crazy idea you had for a program in your head. Yes! I miss it too. For me, that book was Head First PHP & MySQL[0] - Late 2000's, I was living and working in Thailand for a family friends small logistics company in the capacity of a BA, trying to move them into this century. We were trying to find a vendor for any system that would allow us to keep track of the movements of shipping containers within a container yard, and something sparked and I thought "hey, I did a semester of programming at Uni, how hard can it be?!", over the span of the next 6 months or so, this book helped me put together a solution that scarily, they are still using to this day. Fast-forward 15ish years and here I am, still cutting code, although in the capacity of a dev lead, but after all that, I have the book to thank. [0]https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-php/9780596157739/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-php/97805961...
- pcchristie 3y ago
  How long did it take you to learn what you needed to learn, and how long to "ship" your "product"?
  - jamesbfb 3y ago
    IIRC, 3 months to hack together a CRUD like app, another 3 to “ship” the “product”, and yes, quotes very much intended. I did spend the next year or so adding features, bug fixes, etc. It was very much a case of learning on the job and I was quite fortunate to be in the position that I was. I think it was 2 or 3 years later I managed to land a dev role at Agoda (who had offices in Bangkok at the time)
miiiiiike 3y ago
I know exactly what you mean. Felt like the world was opening up. I don't know who it was, it might have been one of the guys my dad worked with, be they said "You won't be able to write a game with a book like that, but you might be able to write a phone directory." Didn't phase me. I remember someone asking me later on if I was going to write a game. I just looked at them blankly and said: "I'm going to write a phone directory". I just learned today that "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" was co-written by Jessee Liberty, one of my all-time favorite technical book writers. "Programming C#, 2nd Edition" was a great book. I loved tech stores too. I still have all of the Apple pamphlets that CompUSA had sitting next to the display units.
- guiambros 3y ago
  CompUSA and Borders have a special place in my heart. I'm from a 3rd world country, so visiting them was a sacred ritual anytime I had the privilege to visit the US. I always brought an extra bag mostly for books, and sometimes a Sound Blaster, some extra memory or a US Robotics card, or a fancy Handspring Visor and some Dreamcast games :)
  - jonathanlydall 3y ago
    Back when Creative Labs was a company deserving of consumer support, nowadays I actively avoid them completely.

tombert 3y ago

I actually didn't think that the Sams books were so bad, albeit a bit misleading if you think you're really gonna grok C or C++ in 24 hours. I learned C first in high school because I found a pirated copy of "Learn C in 24 Hours" online, and I actually felt that they did a reasonably good job getting me started, though if I recall correctly some of their examples with pointers and memory management were actually incorrect. Still, it was enough to make programming interesting to me, and when I dropped out of college the first time I was able to salvage a somewhat decent career because of that interest.

ozim 3y ago
For me that is a nice discussion on its own - for me there’s multiple levels of knowing X - so anything, Yes in 24h you are not going to learn enough to contribute to Linux kernel - but also will be ahead of something like 80% of general population.
phs318u 3y ago
Ah the Sams books. I once thought that writing tech books was going to be a career (having contributed a single chapter to “Microsoft SQL Server Programming Unleashed” by Papa, Shepker et al. I was one of the Al’s). I think the “in 24 hours” thing was more a case of “I’m going to tell you everything I know about XYZ in 24 hours”. Still, I have so many fond memories from the late 80s and 90s spending countless lunchtimes at McGills or the Technical Bookshop in Melbourne (now since long gone), flipping through tech magazines and wondering which of the many weighty tech tomes I’d spend my precious hard-earned on.

jamesbfb 3y ago

> But thing I miss from back then, was the feeling that the book was going to be the key to getting you started writing whatever crazy idea you had for a program in your head. Yes! I miss it too. For me, that book was Head First PHP & MySQL[0] - Late 2000's, I was living and working in Thailand for a family friends small logistics company in the capacity of a BA, trying to move them into this century. We were trying to find a vendor for any system that would allow us to keep track of the movements of shipping containers within a container yard, and something sparked and I thought "hey, I did a semester of programming at Uni, how hard can it be?!", over the span of the next 6 months or so, this book helped me put together a solution that scarily, they are still using to this day. Fast-forward 15ish years and here I am, still cutting code, although in the capacity of a dev lead, but after all that, I have the book to thank. [0]https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-php/9780596157739/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-php/97805961...

pcchristie 3y ago
How long did it take you to learn what you needed to learn, and how long to "ship" your "product"?
- jamesbfb 3y ago
  IIRC, 3 months to hack together a CRUD like app, another 3 to “ship” the “product”, and yes, quotes very much intended. I did spend the next year or so adding features, bug fixes, etc. It was very much a case of learning on the job and I was quite fortunate to be in the position that I was. I think it was 2 or 3 years later I managed to land a dev role at Agoda (who had offices in Bangkok at the time)

miiiiiike 3y ago

I know exactly what you mean. Felt like the world was opening up. I don't know who it was, it might have been one of the guys my dad worked with, be they said "You won't be able to write a game with a book like that, but you might be able to write a phone directory." Didn't phase me. I remember someone asking me later on if I was going to write a game. I just looked at them blankly and said: "I'm going to write a phone directory". I just learned today that "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" was co-written by Jessee Liberty, one of my all-time favorite technical book writers. "Programming C#, 2nd Edition" was a great book. I loved tech stores too. I still have all of the Apple pamphlets that CompUSA had sitting next to the display units.

guiambros 3y ago
CompUSA and Borders have a special place in my heart. I'm from a 3rd world country, so visiting them was a sacred ritual anytime I had the privilege to visit the US. I always brought an extra bag mostly for books, and sometimes a Sound Blaster, some extra memory or a US Robotics card, or a fancy Handspring Visor and some Dreamcast games :)
- jonathanlydall 3y ago
  Back when Creative Labs was a company deserving of consumer support, nowadays I actively avoid them completely.