Looking to learn some C++

What places in Brisbane can you recommend?

Is this for work (i.e. work is paying for it) or just personal?

why would u need to go anywhere?

all the resources are on the net

get them, read them, learn, try, do
repeat

Its for someone at work. It will be paid for by the employer.

I agree with the other guy... the best resources are on the web. dozens of free guides and tutorials. Plus you can work at your own pace so you dont spend a month writing cout << "hello world";

if the guy can already program, then he just has to learn C++ syntax and stuff, shouldn't be too hard.

edit: free book -> http://www.uow.edu.au/~nabg/ABC/ABC.html

last edited by Strik3r at 13:32:34 28/Jul/06

Specifically C++ or OO oriented skillz? C++ only well....I guess self-taught will do it but, if he doesn't know Object Orientated concept and design already then it might be difficult.

He knows basic programming princpals and has experiance in VBA and VB6m just looking to learn a new language.

I'll recommend him to teach himself. ive found a couple of good e-books and tutorials to get him started.

Thanks guys.

If he's looking to learn a new language in general wouldn't he be better off learning C# rather than C++ ?

If he wants to really extract the most out of C++ he'll need to really understand the OO Concepts & Designs. The C++ language by itself is not that special, it's the OO part of it that makes it more flexible and powerful.

If he comes from just VB background and basic procedural programming, he might have "some" basic OO concept (VBA and VB6 OO is not _really_ OO unless he's done VB.NET) and if it's pure procedural programming he'll have even less of an OO understanding.

So it might be good for him to get books related to Object Orientated designs & concepts as well. It'll better complement his learning of C++ (or any good OO Languages).

That's my $0.2c

If he's looking to learn a new language in general wouldn't he be better off learning C# rather than C++ ?

It depends on what his goals are. C#/mono isn't that fantastic in *nix and it's basically as slow as Java.

When doing some .NET training my boss found it hard to find a decent place in Brisbane to do it. We ended up using Readify and the course was held in Melbourne. But it seems they only do .NET training.

Try a book.

Try a burger.

I heard c# can do auto garbage collection?  in that case, beg your mate to learn c# instead if he hasn't done garbage collection before.

Garbage collection is for noobs who don't know what memory is nor how to use it.

Also, C# is "pretend C" .. to be strongly avoided at all costs, just like Visual Basic.

Garbage collection is A Good Thing™. No more management of code to avoid memory leaks. As soon as there are no references to that object it's all cleaned up and I quite like it when it can be handled automatically.

Garbage collection is A Good Thing™. No more management of code to avoid memory leaks

If you can't keep track of your own data structures and memory usage then you shouldn't be programming at all.

There is a beautiful c++ book that should be on amazon if the person already has all the OO concepts downpat, it basically assumes that you know OO and just goes through how to move to c++.  

Familiarity breeds contempt in most cases, but not with computer languages. You have to become an expert with a better language before you can start to have contempt for the one you're most familiar with.

I heard c# can do auto garbage collection? in that case, beg your mate to learn c# instead if he hasn't done garbage collection before.

What? Automatic garbage collection can be useful, but it can also f*** you hard. You use C++ when automatic garbage collection is going to f*** you.

don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with cleaning up after your own mess, however going from VB to C++ would be one hell of a learning curve.  C# (not that Ive used it) would offer allow them to learn (im guessing) C based syntax, OO concepts and some pointer/references knowledge without having to deal with yet another learning curve.  And I was assuming because they have done VB, they would be windows based.  Tho in theory, they could just learn C for the syntax/memory and java for the OO.

don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with cleaning up after your own mess, however going from VB to C++ would be one hell of a learning curve.

Assuming the guy is a competent programmer, the hardest thing about learning how to program is learning problem solving in the right way. After you manage to do that languages aren’t the hugest deal, just the deadlines to learn it in. I’d guess that OO programming is going to be harder than syntax, or even the basics of memory management.

C# (not that Ive used it) would offer allow them to learn (im guessing) C based syntax,

I think VB is mostly C style syntax, at least that’s what my recollection of VB tells me.

OO concepts

This is a fair point, when you don’t have to worry about memory management you can focus on the way you put together your programs. However, other, more lightweight, languages might be better suited for that tasks, like SmallTalk.

and some pointer/references knowledge

You can use pointers in C# applications, as unmanaged code, but generally you wouldn't.

The I think the best answer is answering the OP with a question, what does the guy want to do with his C++ programming after the training?

If it is to become a serious C++ programmer, he is probably going to need to do some courses in OO and he might as well do C++ courses as well. Courses give them deadlines to complete it by and also offer management an idea of how well their money has been spent.

If he is going to supervise a bunch of C++ programmers or move into a junior C++ role, then he could probably get some introduction to OO, Design Patterns and C++ books/sites and just go at it.

I'm not aware of any programs that offer short courses in C++, OOP and Design Patterns :(.