C++
 

Hi everyone, I'm starting this book Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days because I really thought it'd be awesome to code. However I'm only on day 3 and while I normally get computer concepts very quickly I seem to be struggling with C++. I am not doing that bad, but I'd say its bad enough for only being on day 3. I was wondering if all you coders got C++ really fast and was it easy for you? Whenever I think of an alternative like VB, I loose interest in programming since I just dont imagine many good/usefull projects being done in VB. So basically what I am asking is, should I stick with C++ and I'll probably be fine and understand it? If this was not worded very great, I have not had much sleep and we have relatives over :wink: .

C series languages in general are harder to learn for people with no background in programming (when i went to college you would learn Pascal first, then C, then C++), but overall they are not that difficult, it just requires time to learn.

VB is a good language for simple applications like frontend tools, but not really designed for more indepth projects, but it's perfect for quick and dirty projects.

I'd say stick to C++, it's more effort, you are NOT going to get a good grasp of it in 3 days, but it'll come in time. There have been a few developers that picked up C++ programming specificlly because of this project, so just know it's been done before.

Ok, great. Just making sure. I think I'm just so used to getting everything in a couple of minutes. I don't have any other programming experience but I thought C++ would be best. Would you recommend learning C before C++ (I don't think I would like to learn Pascal, you never read about a good project being done in it that I know of)? I was thinking I might learn C first but I had the C++ book handy and it said not to learn C because you would have to unlearn some of the C code to get a good grasp of C++. Also, I heard EQEmu is mostly C so I was wondering, if I know C++ would I still be able to understand EQEmu source and maybe addon to it? The book says if you know C++, you'll have a good understanding of C so I hope that's what it means.

Heh, Everquest was written in pascal :/

Really? Lol I thought it was written in C++. Someone said Pascal was a really old language and it was obselete, guess not though :P .

hehe I thought it was too until recently. I was disassembling the client to look at it a little closer and some of the procedures I noticed were pascal, so I asked Hogie (used to be a GM on live way back when) and he confirmed it was written in pascal.

So, in your opinion Edgar/Trumpcard, should I just learn C++ first? And if I did would I be able to understand and modify the EQEmu source?

Yea, just learn C++. Learn it and you can backward apply it to C, C++ is a superset of C, so if you learn C++, you'll understand C with ease..

Pascal was originally created as a learning language to learn functional languages like C, but grew in popularity in the 80's and early 90's. I remember programming in Borland Turbo Pascal...lol... I had no idea EQ was done in Pascal though, I find it hard to believe the current client is pascal though, does pascal even have directX hooks?? Alot of the code could have been directly ported from pascal into c/c++, but I dont see how the whole thing could.

Yah Pascal sucks, but Hogie said the client was written using it (a few days ago):

[13:29] <LethalEncounter> hey Hogie, was eqgame.exe written in pascal?
[13:30] <Hogie> yes
[13:30] <LethalEncounter> why not c? :/
[13:30] <khuong> pascal > *
[13:30] <LethalEncounter> bullcrap
[13:30] <LethalEncounter> pascal blows
[13:30] <LethalEncounter> all
[13:30] <khuong> LOL
[13:30] <khuong> even though
[13:30] <khuong> it made the most sucessful mmorpg? :P

Ok, thanks for all the replies! I will learn C++ then :) .

no Cobol is obsolete..i got 2 books on cobol lol very old i dont see anything used by it now...

Cobol is nowhere being obsolete...

90% of the worlds finances are still being handled by mainframe cobol code...

No ones going to pay to upgrade information superwarehouses that literally have billions invested in development and upgrades over the years when they're working perfectly fine the way they are, so cobol is going to be sticking around for a while to come..

Its not as prevalent as it was 20 years ago, but it's still very much alive.

Damn, 21 days?? And I am going to college for it and it will take 4 years to get my diploma. I guess it will be worth it, just hard to believe you can teach yourself in 21 days, or go to school to get the diploma and it takes 2 - 4 years. Almost done with my 1st year and have done NO programming at all, lol, just math, math, office XP and Windows XP classes. Maybe I should do full time, hmmmm :P

Learning Programming languages is like learning any other language; you have to learn the alphabet, then learn how to string letters together to make words, then learn the syntax for making complete sentences, then paragraphs, etc...

I'm finishing up my first year in college this semester and have taken C++ and C classes. I'm just starting to see how complex and difficult to master programming can be. and how much further I need to go in order to become a good programmer.

well Trump thats just what I see from my experience with cobol...its old and outdated. But other than that area where do you see cobol being used NOW not somthing that has BEEN in use.