I work at a place that does alot of GUI work and I personally use Java on the project I'm on, but most of our projects use C++ combined with either Motif or QT.
In C++ your graphics are going to be mostly an extension of the language (where as java has alot more built in stuff).
Find a graphics library you like and read documentation on it.
Also realize that if you try and learn coding strictly for graphics stuff (like you set out to learn a graphics library and only learn what is necessary to put that stuff on the screen), you are severely handicapping yourself (in my opinion).
If you take someone that knows C++ inside and out, they can pick up different GUI packages fairly quickly.
Learn the language -- that's your foundation -- the gui stuff is just something that builds on that, but if your foundation is shaky, you'll never be any good with the GUI stuff.
Also realize that once you really start learning a language, it makes each subsequent language easier.
Typically you'll know the kind of approaches that you can take to accomplish a task, it is just a matter of finding the right way to do it in that language.
Programming is like anything else -- it just takes practice. When I first started, I did lots of things that I would later think "That was the worst possible way to accomplish that. Why did I ever do that?" -- then you start getting better and better and you get to the point where 90% of your time is spent on the best overall design and not on actually figuring out HOW to do what you want to do.
It's just like verbal communication -- as a child it is hard to actually create words -- to actually make the right sounds in the right sequence with the right intonations -- but as you grow up, it is less and less about HOW to say the words and more and more about which words best convey your point.
Just keep it up and you'll be fine.
Reality of a job after schooling
Quote:Original post by loachman
I started college this fall for computer science. I'm taking c++ this semester and advanced in the summer. Then fall is vb.net and java.
Anyways It seems to me that c++ is not a very useful language as I thought it was.
We are never going to leave the console in this course during college.
How many jobs, will actually want you to make programs using the console? I'm not saying c++ is not powerful. It just seems to me like you would have to know alot more than just how to program a "console" app.
You would have to know how to program in C++. Once you can do that, all you have to do to open a window is #include <windows.h> and then call a handful of functions defined by Microsoft. (Assuming a Windows platform, anyway). Learning how to use the Windows API is no harder than learning how to use iostream or the other standard C++ headers. (Well, it might be a bit harder in that the API is bigger and there's more to learn. But there's no big conceptual difference. Whether you create a window by calling the Windows function CreateWindow, or use the C function printf to print stuff to the console, well, it's the same thing. It's just a function call. In both cases, you're going to have to look up what arguments it takes the first times you use it, but it's still just a function call.
In other words, console, graphics, GUI, text. It doesn't matter. The reason you aren't leaving the console during your course is that the programming language is the same, and there's no point in bogging you down with having to worry about GUI stuff now. You're supposed to learn C++ programming.
Not "Drag and drop MS Windows components".
Quote:I really don't even understand how all these applications are made with c++. It does not have all the drag and drop "components" like vb does.Or does it?
Those drag and drop components are implemented simply by the IDE creating a few function calls behind your back. You can do the same in C++. Visual Studio does have such a graphical drag & drop kind of editor, but you can also just create your window + gui in straight code. There's no magic involved.
Thanks for all the replys. Yeah I guess learning the language is the most important thing right now.
I was just out in left field about it. Because I have been doing actionscript for quite awhile. And I was used to "seeing" something happen. I guess it's all in due time. Like alot of you said, I've still got a few years left in schooling to "see" something. Better to learn and get a good foundation now.
Thanks
I was just out in left field about it. Because I have been doing actionscript for quite awhile. And I was used to "seeing" something happen. I guess it's all in due time. Like alot of you said, I've still got a few years left in schooling to "see" something. Better to learn and get a good foundation now.
Thanks
Many jobs you will never get to work on the actual visual components at all. At my job I work on the server side software mostly, doing database stuff, fixing reports, etc. I do get a chance to make changes to the client every once in a while, which uses Borland C++, which is always a real treat.
I think many people get into C++, start learning on a console, and don't see C++ as any more than a console language. I know tons of kids in my classes at school who thought that, and that C++ was "very old and out of date" because it only used console windows. The reality is that it can do anything you want, you just have to know where to look. (*ahem* google).
I think many people get into C++, start learning on a console, and don't see C++ as any more than a console language. I know tons of kids in my classes at school who thought that, and that C++ was "very old and out of date" because it only used console windows. The reality is that it can do anything you want, you just have to know where to look. (*ahem* google).
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement