Author Topic: A quick thank you...  (Read 23291 times)

RKCole

  • Guest
A quick thank you...
« on: January 13, 2006, 05:01:21 am »
I hope that this is not just taking up space.  I wanted to write (I just joined this evening) and say thank you for this wonderful program.  On my income there is no way I could afford Visual C++ (even the student edition as I am a college student).  I also tried Dev-C++, which worked but had some problems on my PC.

I am a legally blind user, and I am still somewhat new to C++.  I passed my C++ courses at the college I attend with high grades, but unfortunately the professor did not know much about C++...thus I do not know much even after two quarters of hard work.

The fact that this program is cross-platform is very wonderful.  I have a goal, eventually, to try to begin programming a magnification program (something with universal scrolling) for Linux and Windows as for a commercial application the price is near $600.

I want to thank the makers of this program for the hard work; I am very impressed with what Code::Blocks has to offer.  I also gave my uncle a link to this program.  He was looking for a reason to leave MS Visual C++, and since obtaining Code::Blocks, he has found his reason.

Now that I have the program...I need to learn to program...in both wxWidgets and C++...Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks again for this great package, and keep up the good work!

Take care.

PS: At the risk of sounding ignorant, how would I go about downloading/installing wxSmith?  I had read about it awhile ago, and it grabbed my interest.

Offline killerbot

  • Administrator
  • Lives here!
  • *****
  • Posts: 5490
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2006, 07:31:18 am »
download one of the nightly builds --> wxSmith is included in it, no need to install; it's just there.

Good books about c++ : :
- "effetive c++" and "more effective c++" and "effective stl" from Scott Meyers
- "Exceptional c++" and "More Exceptional c++" and "Exceptional c++ style" from Herb Sutter
- "The C++ Standard Library - A Tutorial and Reference" from Josuttis

These are not that difficult, later on you can switch to books of Andrei Alexandrescu, but that's a little bit more complicated (but also very good)

Enjoy,
Lieven

Offline Michael

  • Lives here!
  • ****
  • Posts: 1608
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2006, 02:06:09 pm »
Hello,

Before beginning with wxWidgets, it would be better (IMHO) to begin with a good C++ book. I would like to add to the list of killerbot's books (which are good suggestions):

  • The C++ Standard : Incorporating Technical Corrigendum No. 1
  • Bjarne Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language"

Naturally, if you have a strong interested in C++, these two other books are worth to be bought:

  • Bjarne Stroustrup, "The Design and Evolution of C++"
  • Margaret A. Ellis and Bjarne Stroustrup, "The Annotated C++ Reference Manual"

Once you have the basis, you can switch to advanced books as:

Andrei Alexandrescu, "Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied" (I think it is this one that killerbot suggested you).

You can find all these books in www.Amazon.com and usually you can go inside a book and see how it is.

I would also advice this link which is full of useful info:

http://public.research.att.com/~bs/homepage.html

Concerning wxWidgets, you will find this book a good one:

Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
 
and without forgetting the website www.wxWidgets.org

Anyway, a lot of info, articles, tutorials, examples and so on can be found in Internet by using www.google.com

Best wishes,
Michael

sethjackson

  • Guest
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2006, 02:56:07 pm »
Hello,

Before beginning with wxWidgets, it would be better (IMHO) to begin with a good C++ book. I would like to add to the list of killerbot's books (which are good suggestions):

  • The C++ Standard : Incorporating Technical Corrigendum No. 1
  • Bjarne Stroustrup, "The C++ Programming Language"

The second one by Bjarne Stroustrup is very good. I find it hard to understand at times. Seeing that I am teaching myself C++ as I go along. :)

Offline killerbot

  • Administrator
  • Lives here!
  • *****
  • Posts: 5490
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2006, 03:00:48 pm »
other good c++ books (they rather start from know knowledge whatsoever) and teach from the start also STL, for example strings , f*** char*  ;-)
Essential c++ from Stanley Lippman
Accelerated c++ from Koenig-Moo

and to get a good hang of templates :
c++ templates from Josuttis/Van de Voorde

Also the books from Stephen Dewhurst are nice, but Meyers' books are better.

Offline Michael

  • Lives here!
  • ****
  • Posts: 1608
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2006, 03:12:13 pm »
The second one by Bjarne Stroustrup is very good. I find it hard to understand at times. Seeing that I am teaching myself C++ as I go along. :)

I have found it relatively hard too :), when I have begun with C++. This book is one of the best, but IMHO it requires relatively a lot of hard work to be "fully" understood.

Michael

Offline TDragon

  • Lives here!
  • ****
  • Posts: 943
    • TDM-GCC
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2006, 04:16:33 pm »
Some excellent books have been recommended so far; to that list I'd like to add two things.

First, hang out with experienced coders and learn from them. This is easiest done online, where words speak louder than actions; I learned much of what I know at the feet of the masters at GameDev.net, a community I highly recommend. (The ones who know what they're talking about can seem rather elitist at times, so try not to be offended if your questions get anwered in a condescending way. You can recognize these people by their correct spelling, grammar and usage.)

Second, learn by imitation. Look at code that someone else, and find a way of modifying it to do what you want to do or reimplementing its design in your own code.

As you learn C++, wxWidgets will provide with an excellent example of how it's properly used. When you're ready to graduate from command prompts to interactive windows, I'd definitely recommend skipping Win32, MFC and .NET/CLI, and moving straight into wxWidgets. (Make sure you know the workings of the compilation process, e.g. library includes vs. libraries vs. DLLs, compile time vs. link time, search paths, before you try your first program that relies on an API such as wxWidgets.)

Cheers, good luck, and all that,
John E. / Twilight Dragon Media
https://jmeubank.github.io/tdm-gcc/ - TDM-GCC compiler suite for Windows (GCC 9.2.0 2020-03-08, 32/64-bit, no extra DLLs)

RKCole

  • Guest
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2006, 06:41:40 pm »
Thanks for all of the great responses, everyone.

As far as the console goes, I have quite a bit of understanding of that.  When I took the C++ courses at the college, they were advertised as Windows programming courses, but never touched the subject.  We went through many aspects of console programming such as: arrays, multi-dimensional arrays, pointers, inheritance, polymorphism, and so on and so on.

I have been trying to keep these skills sharp, but I'm beginning to get a bit rusty.  All of the recommended books I will have to try to get hold of.  I know that I should probably check out the library (but I am sure the one in this small town has nothing program related...unless it's related to COBOL or BASIC...ha-ha), but for some odd reason I have the strong urge to own the books I read...I guess for future reference.  It will take awhile, but I eventually plan to try to build my own library of C++ books.  I am currently living off of a minimal disability income until (hopefully one day soon) I can find work...so it will take awhile for me to build that collection.

As for Win32, MFC, and so forth...once I came across wxWidgets, I told myself that I was going to stick with it.  I do not wish to be constrained to making applications specifically for Windows as I eventually want to learn and hopefully switch to Linux....I've got a lot of Ubuntu CDs here that the company sent to me...

Thanks a bunch for the loads of information.  It is all much appreciated.

Take care.

Offline Ceniza

  • Developer
  • Lives here!
  • *****
  • Posts: 1441
    • CenizaSOFT
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2006, 07:02:05 pm »
Another nice book to bring you quickly to C++'s reality is Danny Kalev - ANSI/ISO C++ Professional Programmer's Handbook, especially if your professor taught you old C++ (old = before the standard).

I don't think you can get it new easily, only a few used. If you don't mind do a quick search in Google and you'll find it.

Useful as a reference too, but it won't teach you how to program in C++ :P

Offline Michael

  • Lives here!
  • ****
  • Posts: 1608
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2006, 07:18:28 pm »
I don't think you can get it new easily, only a few used. If you don't mind do a quick search in Google and you'll find it.

I did not know it. And I have spent time in searching high quality C++ books :). Anyway, you can get it not very easily, but quite :D. Just go to Amazon.

Michael

RKCole

  • Guest
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2006, 07:31:19 pm »
Actually, Half.com (an affiliate site of eBay) has a lot of used books that are in great condition for low prices.  They do not auction there; you just pay the price that is listed.  They have a few copies of that book there (a few meaning about two)...so it seems that that book is truly hard to get hold of.

I use Amazon.com and Half.com for all of my book searches, and I usually can find what I'm looking for.

Offline Michael

  • Lives here!
  • ****
  • Posts: 1608
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2006, 07:38:44 pm »
I use Amazon.com and Half.com for all of my book searches, and I usually can find what I'm looking for.

I have never used Half.com, but a lot Amazon (and not just Amazon.com, but .fr, .at and .uk) for all my books and others :D. I could just advice it.

Michael

Offline Ceniza

  • Developer
  • Lives here!
  • *****
  • Posts: 1441
    • CenizaSOFT
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2006, 07:48:35 pm »
Quote from: Michael
Anyway, you can get it not very easily, but quite :D. Just go to Amazon.

Amazon has 2 used, 0 new.

I said "I don't think you can get it NEW easily" :)

RKCole

  • Guest
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2006, 07:56:35 pm »
Sorry about that, Ceniza.

So...here is yet another (probably) dumb question.  How exactly do I install the nightly builds?  I have used 7-Zip for years now, so that part is not a problem.  but once the files are unzipped, what then?  Do I copy them into the CodeBlocks directory?

Thanks, everyone.

Offline thomas

  • Administrator
  • Lives here!
  • *****
  • Posts: 3979
Re: A quick thank you...
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2006, 07:58:13 pm »
Wow, 132€ for a 1999 book. Does that book come with a personal tutor?
"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: Premature quotation is the root of public humiliation."