I think the book in the second link in my sig is more suited for someone with no prior programming experience, while your book probably already assumes some familiarity with basic programming concepts (even if it doesn't say it specifically).

I would recommend that you work through this book first, and then continue to the second link. The two-volume book there is more advanced and covers many things the first book doesn't (both language features and programming concepts). Also, it will give more in-depth explanations of how some of the language features work and why they work the way they do.

I understand that you don't want your money to go to waste, but your time is more valuable than that money, and you shouldn't spend it on a book that doesn't suit you. At the very least, take a look at the other books to see what you think of their writing style and general feeling compared to your book.

Good luck.

Ok, that's understandable if you want to stick with your book so you havn't wasted your money, and being persistent and sticking with it is important in learning programming, so you're developing one of the important skills right there. [smile]

As suggested, you can check out the forum for the C++ workshop (you'll find it down near the bottom of the forum index) that was run last year as well as the links provided by Gage64 as additional resources if you need more information about a particular topic.

Quote:my problem is that there are around 20-30 pages per chapter and i'm afraid that if i'm getting even the slightest bit confused with only 5 or 10 pages that i won't be able to learn it effectively or even remember it (i'm not exactly the most efficient student when it comes to studying for something or taking notes...)

Ok, this almost certainly isn't a major problem, you know you sometimes have difficulty, so you can work around that. It might help you out a bit to hear that noone remembers everything when they're first learning to program and that most people don't remember very much at all at first. What you want to do is to try to understand the material as well as possible as you're going along but not worry too much if you can't remember all the details for now; as you continue you'll gradually start to remember the simpler stuff until you build a good working knowledge and start to remember pretty much all your fundamentals.

Some advice for learning with your book:

• Make sure you take breaks in between sessions with your book so that you're able to concentrate properly when you're either reading or trying out the exercises.
• Do all the exercises provided and try to understand how (and why!) they work the way they do. Have a bit of a play with the code yourself as well - pick something and guess what will happen if you change it, then try it out and find out if you're right. If you were wrong try to find out why by going back through your material, checking alternate sources of information or asking for help here in the forums.
• Don't worry too much about remembering the details. Once you think you understand something and you've done the exercises and had a play with the code move on to the next thing and just refer back if you find you've forgotten something - as you use various techniques more often you'll gradually find you start to remember more and more, and even expert programmers still check reference material; an important skill in programming is being able to find information you need quickly and efficiently, noone can remember everything.
• Stick with it!

Quote:it has to do with a directX program, do you guys have any ideas on what would be best to learn before i do that, and/or after i finish learning c++?

You'll want to be reasonably comfortable with making console (i.e. text based) programs first, you can probably give it a go after getting through your first book and perhaps taking a look at some of the free beginner resources out there as well. You can always give it a try at any point you feel you might be ready and come back to studying your basics if you find it's still too difficult. [wink]


Hope that helps, feel free to keep asking any further questions! [smile]

Quote:Original post by Red Dragon 333
Ok, i'm 14 years old and am trying to learn how to program games, a couple of years ago i tried, and got a book called "Beginning c++ game programming" by Michael Dawson, but i gave up because everything was way over my head. I'm back again to see if i can understand it and i read about 10 pages and understand about half of it but it's so hard to understand some of it i find myself drifting off...any ideas?

I started with game maker where I made some nice games, then I moved to VB6 and stayed with it until I could make what I was able to do with maker. Now I'm learning C++. If you want to stay with C++ check www.cplusplus.com. I like their tutorial very much!