# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  C++ programmer as my career.

## Baggins

Hello everyone.

I'm 15 and at my school work experience in mandatory (I wanted to do it anyway) and I've started thinking about what I want to do with my life. I was thinking about a career as a programmer but I have not the slightest clue about it and what I've got to do. I'm calling to the fellow tech heads on DV about a few questions I have.

_I'm strapped for cash..._

1. I've got Dial-up... is that going to be a problem?

2. Any *Free* E-books/Sites which can teach me C++?

3. If "No" to 2, what is a good book I can buy for learning from?

4. Like I said, I have no clue about programming and if you have anymore details/help/suggestions I'm open for them.

Thank you very much.

- Baggins

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## slash112

Well, first thing you are going to want to do is get Code::Blocks.
Go here and download the "codeblocks-10.05mingw-setup.exe" one (second one)

Download that and install it. It's a pretty simple setup.


There are a lot of good free resources out there for C++. There are probably free E-Books, but the stuff I know of is This, which is quite good.

Just go to "Documentation" then "C++ language tutorial" (here) And work through it from the start.

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## DuB

Sorry, you can't feasibly be a professional programmer and only one know programming language. You can _specialize_ in one, that's just fine, but you're going to need to be familiar in several. Market demands, you understand. Don't worry though, once you've got a grasp of the first language you'll learn pretty quickly that they're all basically the same. It's only the first language that's conceptually demanding. It's only differences in syntax, really.

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## ninja9578

You're going to need to go to college for software engineering.  Tech companies expect a bachelors degree or higher, so you have plenty of time to learn C++.  Find a good college that uses C++, there are lots of them.

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## Phion

I have some decent programming books on file and threw a little melange together for you.  I hope you find them useful:

C++ Programming Books

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## Baggins

> Sorry, you can't feasibly be a professional programmer and only one know programming language. You can _specialize_ in one, that's just fine, but you're going to need to be familiar in several. Market demands, you understand. Don't worry though, once you've got a grasp of the first language you'll learn pretty quickly that they're all basically the same. It's only the first language that's conceptually demanding. It's only differences in syntax, really.



Sorry, I should had phrased myself right. C++ will be my first and then I will continue to learn the others. I'm just focusing on C++ until I have a extremely high understanding of it and then I will continue on to learning the others which are more likely to be used in business.






> You're going to need to go to college for software engineering.  Tech companies expect a bachelors degree or higher, so you have plenty of time to learn C++.  Find a good college that uses C++, there are lots of them.



Thank you, after I finish school I was planning to move onto University or college.


@Slash112   Thank you, I will download when I can because my brother lives for his games and will make him lag and complain.  ::?: 

@Phion   Thank you, I'm going to download the books in a second.

Thanks everyone  :Cheeky: 

-Baggins

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## Baggins

Sorry, for some reason it posted twice so just delete this post.

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## Twisted

One suggestion: learn Java first.

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## DuB

I don't know, the two languages are so syntactically similar that it probably doesn't matter much from a learning perspective. I liked C++ a little better. It felt less restrictive.

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## alxxxx

Go for it! 

Remember though, coding is difficult.  There isn't a set way to code, you have to find your own coding personality and build stuff yourself.

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## SteadyState

I'm currently a web designer/programmer and I started to learn C when I was about 14 or 15, it's good to get a handle on this stuff early before you head off to college. So props on getting started young.

C++ is a really nice language, but you should start with something easier. Once you learn one language, it's easier to learn others. Generally speaking, most programming languages work the same way with tiny differences in syntax, functions, etc.

I'd start with HTML, JavaScript and maybe PHP. They're all web languages and I know you have dialup, but that shouldn't be a huge barrier to learning them. Perl is a nice one too (and it can be coded offline). It's one of the most powerful and easiest to learn languages out there IMO. Check that out.

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## Philosopher8659

Microsoft gives away--free--their programming environments Lite. Secondly, books be can had off the torrent market by the buckets. 
Third, you might want to start learning the basics using microsoft word and using the built in macro programing. 

But always, you must, like any creator, have an idea of what you wish to create first and you must use it and put it through its paces. 

Also, from torrent downloads you can get video teaching programs. 

I suggest you have one dedicated system to programming. 

Use the resources for learning, you might get burned if you try to use them for marketing.

For shipping and handling, Microsoft will mail you the DVD's

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## ninja9578

> Microsoft gives away--free--their programming environments Lite. Secondly, books be can had off the torrent market by the buckets.



Microsoft's environment is rarely used is professional development.

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## Philosopher8659

> Microsoft's environment is rarely used is professional development.



Very few, just starting to learn, are called  professional.

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## Xei

To get you started, MIT does a very good lecture series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6U-i4gXkLM

They use python which is a very nice introductory language.

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## ninja9578

> Very few, just starting to learn, are called  professional.



Exactly, so why learn on a platform that nobody uses, isn't C++ compliant by default, and the free version is stripped down?

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## SteadyState

> To get you started, MIT does a very good lecture series:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6U-i4gXkLM
> 
> They use python which is a very nice introductory language.



I never liked Python, but it's supposedly good for newer programmers.
And MITs Open Coursework lectures are awesome. I've been using them a lot recently. I'm sure the comp sci ones are excellent.

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## Baggins

Thank you everyone.

The other day at school I had a long chat with my teacher and he recommended Perl because in his words "You can come at a problem from a different angle instead of only one way to fix a problem with most other programming languages"

I've still got until Christmas to decide because then I get my own computer and at the moment me and my brother share one and have one hour turns on it. I believe that 1 hour will not be long enough to actually get the work to "Sink in".

Thanks again everyone.

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## mattbrox

You really should go with C++. I'm taking online courses right now for C++ game development now and it's a breeze.

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## exdreamer

When you are a beginner the first language you learn is going to have a steep learning curve while you get to grips with the fundamentals. The language you choose doesn't really matter so long as it's popular enough that good resources are available. C++ is an excellent choice.

Don't worry about your future career too much. Just learn at your own pace and because you want to. There is far too much emphasis on teenagers planning for their careers.

Programming is a great skill. Yes, there are job prospects, but there are also great small business and freelance prospects.

I remember when I was 15 and did work experience. I too was pursuing programming as my future career. Unfortunately they nor I could find anywhere suitable and I ended up in some grubby office making the tea.  :Sad:

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## Sornaensis

I don't think I saw anyone link this: C++ Language Tutorial <-- Has everything on the STL, and general C++ programming. Also the tutorial is easy to understand and moves at a good pace.

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## ninja9578

Yes, cplusplus.com is a godsend.  And unlike msdn, it's upkept and up to date.

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## DrunkenArse

> d. Don't worry though, once you've got a grasp of the first language you'll learn pretty quickly that they're all basically the same. It's only the first language that's conceptually demanding. It's only differences in syntax, really.



Try going from C to Common Lisp or Haskell and see if you still agree with this. If so, I'd say you're writing one of them poorly. While there are classes of language for which this holds true, each language has it's own way of doing things.





> I'd start with HTML, JavaScript and maybe PHP. They're all web languages and I know you have dialup, but that shouldn't be a huge barrier to learning them. Perl is a nice one too (and it can be coded offline). It's one of the most powerful and easiest to learn languages out there IMO. Check that out.



My vote would be for PHP over Perl. The syntax in perl is downright perverse. The whole thing has the feeling of being a hacked together mess.





> To get you started, MIT does a very good lecture series:
> 
> YouTube - &#x202a;Lec 1 | MIT 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, Fall 2008&#x202c;&lrm;
> 
> They use python which is a very nice introductory language.



+1 for python




> I had a long chat with my teacher and he recommended Perl because in his words "You can come at a problem from a different angle instead of only one way to fix a problem with most other programming languages"



Perhaps it's worth putting this a little more explicitly: Fuck Perl.  The language is a joke. It's largest constituency is sysadmins that learned it back in the nineties and poor poor souls that need to maintain the first generation of CGI sites that were written in it (if any still actually exist).  Python is not just a great language to start with but a great language to use. Builtin syntactic support for decorators is incredibly cool and if you can' do it with a decorator, you can do it with a metaclass.

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