- PPF Points
- 319
C++ is kinda like that intimidating gym bro—you know it’s got power under the hood, maybe scares you a bit, but man, when you figure it out? It slaps. When I first gave it a shot, I was tripping over pointers, getting roasted by bizarre compiler errors, and the whole memory thing just made my brain melt. No joke, C++ seemed like it was built to haze newbies. But I stuck with it, and dude, once you get the hang of the basics, C++ feels like unlocking a cheat code. So much control, it’s almost dangerous.
If you’re just jumping in, don’t go charging straight for all that fancy OOP or template wizardry. Seriously, chill. Start small—think plain C-style stuff: variables, if-else, loops, basic functions. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself if you really get how memory works, what happens when you pass variables around, that kind of thing. I made the mistake—yep, went sprinting into classes waaaay too early and ended up totally clueless about the memory side of things. Don’t be me.
Now, if you want a solid game plan, grab Stroustrup's “Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++.” The book’s kinda chunky, but hey, it’s written by the dude who literally created C++. Can’t go wrong. It doesn’t rush, walks you through the why, not just the how. Pair that with an online IDE (repl.it is chill), or get VS Code running with CMake/Make on your machine if you’re feeling spicy.
Oh—and don’t just watch YouTube tutorials with your eyes glazed over. Code along, break stuff, make it crash, then fix it. There’s no shortcut; you actually gotta, you know, write C++. Honestly, the best baby steps are tiny console projects—a calculator, a bank thingy, even a silly text adventure. Anything to make those concepts stick.
Word of warning: C++ won’t save you from yourself. If you’re not watching out, it’ll bite you with memory leaks and wild undefined behavior. Turn on all the warnings, use things like Valgrind, and get paranoid about your code—trust me, it pays off. Most modern languages hide the messy bits, but C++? Nah, it makes you deal with them head-on. Builds character, apparently.
Once all that starts feeling less alien, then—go wild! Dig into classes, the Standard Template Library, the nifty modern C++ tricks like smart pointers and lambdas. No rush. You’ll get there.
Oh, and what are you actually trying to build? Games? Tools? Some mad crypto mining scheme? Figure that out, and you’ll know what to learn next better than any textbook could tell you.
If you’re just jumping in, don’t go charging straight for all that fancy OOP or template wizardry. Seriously, chill. Start small—think plain C-style stuff: variables, if-else, loops, basic functions. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself if you really get how memory works, what happens when you pass variables around, that kind of thing. I made the mistake—yep, went sprinting into classes waaaay too early and ended up totally clueless about the memory side of things. Don’t be me.
Now, if you want a solid game plan, grab Stroustrup's “Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++.” The book’s kinda chunky, but hey, it’s written by the dude who literally created C++. Can’t go wrong. It doesn’t rush, walks you through the why, not just the how. Pair that with an online IDE (repl.it is chill), or get VS Code running with CMake/Make on your machine if you’re feeling spicy.
Oh—and don’t just watch YouTube tutorials with your eyes glazed over. Code along, break stuff, make it crash, then fix it. There’s no shortcut; you actually gotta, you know, write C++. Honestly, the best baby steps are tiny console projects—a calculator, a bank thingy, even a silly text adventure. Anything to make those concepts stick.
Word of warning: C++ won’t save you from yourself. If you’re not watching out, it’ll bite you with memory leaks and wild undefined behavior. Turn on all the warnings, use things like Valgrind, and get paranoid about your code—trust me, it pays off. Most modern languages hide the messy bits, but C++? Nah, it makes you deal with them head-on. Builds character, apparently.
Once all that starts feeling less alien, then—go wild! Dig into classes, the Standard Template Library, the nifty modern C++ tricks like smart pointers and lambdas. No rush. You’ll get there.
Oh, and what are you actually trying to build? Games? Tools? Some mad crypto mining scheme? Figure that out, and you’ll know what to learn next better than any textbook could tell you.
