UGN Security Forums UGN Security: Knowledge Base Programming C/C++ What now?

Well, I'm in a course for programming and have completed two C courses and a C++ course. I think I know the basics but can't realy find what exactly are "the basics." I worked with pointer a bit and binary sorts. I worked on what you might want to call a game but what I want to know is what should I do next. I don't know where to look what I'm looking for and I'm not the richest guy so your insane ammount of book suggestions, even though reading doesn't seem to stick in my head anyway, is a waste of time, I have a few of them already. I read the first chapters and found myself not knowing what it's talking about. If I sit there with code and change it and see the changes happen then I can learn easily, I can't trace code through multiple files, like through LIB files. I've tried looking at direct draw but I keep getting the same error and I don't know how to fix it. I've been here http://www.relisoft.com/win32/direct.html, and another site that I can't find right now, trying to understand DD but it's just not happening. I've read that site too many times and I'm losing patience with myself. I need help to learn. Maybe another API(whatever that is) that isn't so "complex".

<img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/pissed.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[cap]" title="" src="graemlins/cap.gif" />

Gizmo shoved a link to this topic in my face so here I am to reply.

Books are yick for me too. I never suggest books. I get impatient with books. All I need is some example code and a reference/documentation pulled up on some webpage and I'm ready to go.

I've never learned a language just because. I never set out to learn more about a language. Why? Cause learning the language isn't the point. The point is what you make. If you need a convenient program for something, write it. If you want to test something out in code, write it. Otherwise, don't write anything.

If working on games gets you off, then all power to ya. I find that games and client/server development are my 2 favorite things to code. So if you're asking "what now?" then I don't know. Just pick a project you would like to see done. It doesn't matter if it's hard, just learn as you go. Start small, and work your way up. If you want a suggestion, then write a text based mud.

My favorite reference material is:
http://msdn.microsoft.com

Cool, great advice. I think I will heed your advice and continue our game project on the go. It's in one large file and in C using structs instead of objects in C++(when we just started programming :p ). We have some work ahead of us to make it run better and learn how to fix our problems. Thanks again for the great advice.

this is the problem i always run into. i love to learn new things, and coding is probably one of the thigns i know the least about. which kinda sucks b/c when you learn coding, you tend to learn quite a lot. especially concerning protocols and whatnot. my problem, is i never have a program in mind that i'm like "oh, i should write this!" and it's a problem, b/c if i have no desire to write code, i have no desire to learn to. the programs i tend to want to write are just way over my head. i've gone down the roads of chat clients and port scanners...but they just seem done to death. i have learned a lot from making them, but i get to a certain poinrt, where i find something new. and b/c learning if my only motivation for doing them, it doesn't bother me if i switch what i'm doing to learn something else. thus, it always remains unfinished. i'm starting to ramble here, so you get the point. i guess part of me is just asking "what programs should i write, or would anyone else like to have written." and i understand that this is all on a person by person basis. but did anyone fine a program themselves that they found interesting?//