7 replies to this topic

[Brandonnn]

Hey guys,

This is my first post here, although I have been reading through a lot of other threads. I am a long time web developer (PHP, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript...etc) so coding is not a new concept to me. I've had 1 Java programming class, although that's been a few years back.

I've bought, and have gotten through about half of Beginning C++ Through Game Programming by Michael Dawson, but all of this is only command line programs.

I understand that in order to use a language you have to know the syntax and blah blah blah... but I've noticed that C++ is ridiculously similar to PHP, so the syntax isn't hard to catch on to. I guess my question is... how do you bridge the gap between text based command line to GUI.

Should I jump right into learning DirectX or should there be a middle step in there somewhere? I intend on starting small and working my way up... (ie starting with something somewhat simpler like tetris)

[SimonForsman]

You could take a look at SFML.

[Dynamo_Maestro]

That book is VERY basic and I believe it even says this early on that it doesnt cover major areas of C++, its a nice book for starting C++ but in no way covers everything

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list

Theres a list of recommend books on C++

My personal recommendations are:

http://www.amazon.com/Ivor-Hortons-Beginning-Visual-Programmer/dp/0470500883/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331985004&sr=1-1

This book is a great place to start, it covers a lot of areas really nicely, I am a fan or Ivor Horton's style and think he is one of the best authors out there, the book doesnt cover everything but its a great place to start, the book also covers C++/CLR however these sections can be missed if you are not interested in .net

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Principles-Practice-Using-C/dp/0321543726/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331983526&sr=1-2

The only issue with this book is the links it suggest are broken, other than that is a great book, a lot of the basics are covered in the previous book but this book does in a nice way explain things in a bit more detail and covers several areas not even mentioned in the book above. Sadly I havent finished this book but from what I have read I would rate it very high

http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-Special-Edition/dp/0201700735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331985262&sr=1-1

I have this book waiting to be read, it is highly recommended for learning C++ and I believe in the previous book the author recommends this book in further reading

The above 2 books have been written by the creator of C++ too and I must admit he has a nice way of teaching

As for DirectX, thats a different story and you are best to learn C++ as much as you can before moving on to even an engine, PHP and C++ may have similar syntax but the languages are very much different.

[Telastyn]

how do you bridge the gap between text based command line to GUI.

If you're half way through your first C++ book, you don't. While the syntax is very similar, the semantics are very different. You should write a bunch of small command line programs to get familiar with the language and dealing with its pile of gotchas.

[Brandonnn]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into those books.

[Storyyeller]

If you want online resources, I personally started with cplusplus.com and the Lazy Foo SDL tutorials. And GameDev.net of course.

[Brandonnn]

So far I have been using the tutorials on thenewboston.com and they are pretty good, but he doesn't do a great job of explaining some of the concepts. I'll check out those too.

[bd36]

I am relatively new to C++ GUI/Game programming. It was recommended to me to look into SDL and it has worked great for me. I was able to make a tic tac toe game within a few hours of reading some SDL tutorials, granted I was also not new to programming but I am by no means an expert or anything close. Recently I also made a snake clone with a two player element to further my understand of a game life cycle and classes in c++. To learn more about SDL check out these tutorials http://lazyfoo.net/S...rials/index.php