Staying Motivated

[ideas.mlc]

I have been messing with C++ for over a year, and their are so many
things to learn in the language.
I am having trouble staying motivated, it seems as if all the projects
that would be cool to me are beyond my level and I am unable to reach.

What are some good things to do to learn C++ better, and to have fun
with it.
I have a couple books and a good amount of time..

 

[Obnoxious User]

I have been messing with C++ for over a year, and their are so many
things to learn in the language.
I am having trouble staying motivated, it seems as if all the projects
that would be cool to me are beyond my level and I am unable to reach.

What are some good things to do to learn C++ better, and to have fun
with it.
I have a couple books and a good amount of time..

Visit rec.games.roguelike.development
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

 

[ideas.mlc]

Visit rec.games.roguelike.development
andhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

Any other ideas, or tips from experienced programmers.

 

[tony_in_da_uk]

I have been messing with C++ for over a year, and their are so many
things to learn in the language.
I am having trouble staying motivated, it seems as if all the projects
that would be cool to me are beyond my level and I am unable to reach.

What are some good things to do to learn C++ better, and to have fun
with it.
I have a couple books and a good amount of time..

I think it's quite a personal thing... best to pick something that
you're either interested in or will find useful. That could be
anything from implementing some basic 3D graphics or using OpenGL
through a system to prompt you for the translations of foreign words
you're studying to a system to download from a web site you like and
present the information in a more customised way. If you want a
project to contribute to - hopefully something in one of these
interesting/useful domains - sourceforge has thousands to look at.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[Ron AF Greve]

Hi,

As mentioned in other posts it depends on your interests. Best is to start
with something that is simple, does has your interest and can be extended
later on. Note that you do not have to use everything C++ has to offer all
at once.

My personal opinion is that the fun in programming is a finished product or
part of a program (not reading books about it or entering code/debugging,
though that of course is necessary to reach your goal). Looking back on
(part of) a program and seeing what you got in your mind has turned into
reality, is the real fun.

If your are on a ms-windows platfrom. You could try to implement something
like four on a row or tictactoe or something. It might go something like
this
* Try to create a basic window (or let VC generate a basic win32 app and try
to understand the code).
* Try to create some basic graphics ( for instance two classes one drawing a
cross and another a circle, just stick with simple lines for the moment).
* Create an array (vector ) and a method that will make a screen
representation of whatever value is in the arrray,.
* Add the possibility for user input
* Add logic so the doesn't allow the user to supply illegal input.
* Add logic so the computer actually can play against the user

On Unix/Linux you can ofcourse do the same but you could start even simpler
with just a console/ascii app.

After that is finished it might be rewarding enough that you would like to
extend it.
* Make it possible to save/load
* Fancier graphics (for instance bitmaps instead of lineart).

So start coding and keep the books beside you to look things up

Regards, Ron AF Greve

http://www.InformationSuperHighway.eu

 

[LR]

I have been messing with C++ for over a year, and their are so many
things to learn in the language.

And more coming.

I am having trouble staying motivated, it seems as if all the projects
that would be cool to me are beyond my level and I am unable to reach.

What is your level?

What are some good things to do to learn C++ better, and to have fun
with it.

As others have pointed out, picking something that interests you and
working on that is a good way to learn.

You will best know what interests you and your skill level.

I find the best thing to do is to start small. Many "real-life"
programs start this way and grow and grow. But they probably started small.

Also, remember, at this level, you don't have to get it right the first
time.

Pick a small feature set and pick some new thing to learn about C++ and
experiment with the two together.


I know you're expecting concrete examples... wait, does concrete
interest you? Then perhaps you'd be interested in calculating how long
it will take to cure?

No? Sewing? How about trying to figure out a nice way to cut
rectangles from cloth with little waste.

No? Chemistry? Write a small program to read the names of organic
molecules and print a graphical representation. No graphics? Use ASCII
to make pictures.

Banking? Write something to help you balance your checkbook.

You're only interested in computers? Write an emulator for a very small
machine. Perhaps only two instructions,
INCREMENT the byte at an address
and
IF the byte at address == zero GOTO address
Then write a small assembler, linker and debugger too.

None of these ideas appeal to you? Surely there's something?
Electronics? Aviation? Genealogy? Railroads? War? Kitchen appliances?
Sports scheduling? How acorns turn into oaks and turn into acorns again?

You'll have to use your imagination. Or look through your local business
phone directory.

I have a couple books and a good amount of time..

What books do you have? Have you taken a look at the book reviews at
www.accu.org?

Do you have a compiler and a reasonable development environment?

Good luck.

HTH.

LR