Good books for learning to program

Recently, I have found myself wanting to get my computer to do something for which a program doesn't already exist.

I would quite like to learn Visual C++, so I can develop my own solutions to problems I have. For example I wanted to create a program for generating skey on my pocket pc.

Can anyone suggest some good books to get me started, I already own a copy of Visual Studio 6, bought it a few years ago while it was available under student license, but have not got around to learning any language in great depth.

I do have a basic understanding of Visual Basic, but understand C++ is far more useful to know.

Thanks

Martin

Thinking in C++ 2nd Edition by Bruce Eckel

Free Electronic Book
Volume 1 & Volume 2

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html

I don't think you understand JUST how hard VC++ is. Imagine if you tried to learn VB but VB was written in Japanese and you couldn't speak Japanese.. and the compiler was working against you with wacked out debug message that are three lines long....

There is no one single book.. you need to grab all the books you can and get what you can from them. Don't expect ANY results for the first three years (not typo) and you should be fine. Also, go look at the post about a free C++ compiler, you would be better off using that than the one with VC++ 6...

I would advise you to learn C# but that costs money, so I will just wish you luck. Good luck!

I know it will take time, just wanted some advice on where was a good starting point. I had downloaded the Visual C++ Toolkit 2003.

Managed to get a hello world program to work, just want to know I am going about writing and learning the language in a sensible way.

Depending on how I get on, I would be happy to spend money on C#, but want to make sure I am at least make some head way first.

Thanks for the quick reply

Just wondering.  What do the MS guys have on their bookshelves, programming related and well maybe some fiction?

Mitch,  have you tried looking through some of the PC mags, i know the Uk mags do programming sections at the back, some have VB tutes and C and C++, they have stuff for linux/windows etc etc etc.  might be a good place to look.

A most excellent book for learning to program in C# is 'Windows Forms Programming with C#' by Erik Brown

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1930110286/qid=1082326587/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6061999-7028710?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Here is my collection on C++ books on my shelf here in Redmond, though I'm not an expert on the language (i've been focusing on C# the last couple of years), I do think it helps to well versed, as certain languages have certain features, as well as, certain programming theories that maybe can be used in other languages.

Deitel: How To Program C++, V4
Lippman: C++ Primer
Stroustrap: The C++ Programming language, V3
O'reilly: Practical C++ programming & C++: The Core Language
K&R: The C porgramming language
Wrox: Beginning C & Beginning C++
Petzold: Programming Windows, V5
Richter: Porgramming Windows applications, V4

It's long list, and not exactly "light" reading, but then again "knowledge is power"

Jaz wrote:

Just wondering.  What do the MS guys have on their bookshelves, programming related and well maybe some fiction?

Excellent question! Come on MS people. Let's see your bookshelves! Why not post a picture of it so we can see which O'reilly books you're secretly reading.

How is Microsoft related to Microsoft Press? Does every employee get a set of books, do you just request them, or do you have to open your wallet like the rest of us?

About programming: I think you should go with C#. It's a great language. And if you still want to learn C++ after that, you will find the syntax familiar from C#. Just alot harder.

/Lars.

A "radical" suggestion, but only if you have a spare machine to do to this on or a virtual machine program (virtual pc / vmware ..). You could find the preview version of VS2005 Whidbey, and start learning either C# or VB(.NET). I suppose you have a broadband connection, if you can find that VS2005 CTP, you can also find a lot of good stuff to get you started on C# or VB.NET.

And if you don't have spare machine/vm or can't find VS2005 CTP, you could still get SharpDevelop if you don't have the dough for VS2003 currently.
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx

You will also need

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/netdevframework.asp

and probably (I'm not sure) .NET SDK

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9B3A2CA6-3647-4070-9F41-A333C6B9181D&displaylang=en

Dear Sir,

Good day ,

please, Iwant to learning vc++,

Best regards

Alfy samir

mitch wrote:

Recently, I have found myself wanting to get my computer to do something for which a program doesn't already exist.

I would quite like to learn Visual C++, so I can develop my own solutions to problems I have. For example I wanted to create a program for generating skey on my pocket pc.

Can anyone suggest some good books to get me started, I already own a copy of Visual Studio 6, bought it a few years ago while it was available under student license, but have not got around to learning any language in great depth.

I do have a basic understanding of Visual Basic, but understand C++ is far more useful to know.

Thanks

Martin

Anyone who wants to learn C++ for real might want to pickup one of the Exceptional C++ / Engineering Puzzles books.

It isn't one of those books that you pickup and read front to back cover... It is one of those books that you pickup and work though while learning stuff by example.

You get out what you put in like most things... And you will need an internet connection / working C++ compiler to enjoy the series.

Yeah. Grab the Microsoft VS Express C++ Edition (It's free) and it's a good compiler. The error messages are somewhat less cryptic and a win-forms visual editor helps you make the most out of Windows interaction.

mitch wrote:

Recently, I have found myself wanting to get my computer to do something for which a program doesn't already exist.

I would quite like to learn Visual C++, so I can develop my own solutions to problems I have. For example I wanted to create a program for generating skey on my pocket pc.

Can anyone suggest some good books to get me started, I already own a copy of Visual Studio 6, bought it a few years ago while it was available under student license, but have not got around to learning any language in great depth.

I do have a basic understanding of Visual Basic, but understand C++ is far more useful to know.

Thanks

Martin

I tried to learn C++ in high school and I made one crazy attempt that created a semi-working program with multithreading and a graphical user interface, using object oriented programming (which to this day, I still do not understand), but it was terribly written (I think not knowing about objects or pointers, and not having any working knowledge of the language or Microsoft's extenions to it for that matter were factors).

I took a programming class on C this past semester (all other classes I have taken so far are theory classes), which I aced. Next semester, I will take a programming class on C++ (plus another one involving Java, a language which I do not look forward to learning having learned C).

If you want to learn Visual C++, I suggest that you learn C first. Then, after you learn C, learn about the C++ extensions to C and after learning them, finally learn about Microsoft's extensions to C++ that enable the use of graphical user interfaces and the like. You will save yourself alot of headaches that will result from not being familar with several concepts you will need to use all at once.

Prior to learning C, I was a PHP programmer (as a hobby) and while it [knowledge of another programming language] helped when I made that crazy attempt that created a semi-working program, there were many concepts for which experience in PHP did not prepare me and I needed to have a working knowledge of all of them simultaneously to do what I wanted to do, which was disasterous. It might be different for you, given that you are a Visual Basic programmer, but my advice to you is to tackle C++ programming on Windows incrementally, first learning C, then learning C++ and finally learning about Microsoft's extensions that make GUIs and the like possible, as I said in my previous paragraph.

If you take my advice and learn C first, here is some information that should help you find a copy of the textbook I used for my C class:

‘‘Programming in C’’ by Stephan Kochan, third edition, Sams Publishing, 2005.
ISBN: 0-672-32666-3.

By the way, I noticed that some people are suggesting that you learn C#. C# is an okay language (it ranks with Java in my book), but C is the foundation of (or at least heavily influences) many modern programming languages (e.g. C#, C++, D, PHP, etcetera), so if you want to learn any of them, it would be best to first know C and if you know C, learning C influenced or C derived languages such as C++ (which was originally made as an extension of C to allow object oriented programming) should not be very difficult. Not to mention C# carries the extra baggage of the .NET framework (this why it ranks with Java in my book) which makes programs written in C# less efficient than equivalent programs written in C/C++ (not .NET C/C++).

You realize this is a thread from 2004.

Way to nec a thread.