Learning C++ is a daunting thing, I put of doing it for years and finally took the plunge last year. Here’s what worked for me.
I learn best by being taught, in the classroom is my ideal, but failing that I prefer videos over books and I like at least a couple of viewpoints. I find the different ways of explaining things helps the knowledge stick. It has taken me over a year, but I am now writing moderately complex C++ programs. And what’s more, I’m enjoying it. Learning C++ has been and continues to be a fun journey, especially when compared to my day job of PHP and Java!
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I started with Beginning C++ Programming – From Beginner to Beyond by Learn Programming Academy which starts at the complete basics and progresses at a nice pace. It is easy to follow along with.
Once I had completed this course, I spent a fair bit of time practising what I had learnt, writing small and simple C++ programs to help me get used to the language. |
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I followed up with The C++20 Masterclass : From Fundamentals to Advanced by Daniel Gakwaya which teaches C++20, starting from the fundamentals. It’s less about teaching you to program in C++ than it is about teaching you C++ in depth. Despite the teachers tendency to call square brackets angle brackets, this is a very good course.
I followed this course with more complex practise. I did both these courses twice. Once coding along and once taking notes. |
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If you learn best from books, then Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup is always highly recommended. I bought this book because it was recommended as additional reading for the first course but haven’t had to use it much. |
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If you’re still not sure and want to find out if C++ is for you without spending any money, you can try this free C++ course from John Purcell. It teaches an older, but given the amount of old code out there, still relevant style of C++ and builds a really cool SDL project. On the other hand, why use all the modern and safer wrappers if what you are after is raw speed.
I took this course because I specifically wanted to learn more about the old style of C++. |
