Annoyed customer wants to learn C++?!?

[joelietz]

I kid you not..

I have an Asian customer who is very smart that got really mad at the software he's using and asked me for help learning C++!

The best thing I could find for free was the MinGW w64 project at sourceforge?

I see they built lots of good apps with the project but is that really one of the best resources for someone who wants to get started?! :|

 

[garyk]

absolute madness, C++ is one of the hardest things to learn and offers no real benefit in real world (i.e. talking to web and/or database) performance benefits. The learning curve is massive.

 

[Pentangle]

Point him at a University.

 

[rayoncena]

he is right, post him at university.

 

[JMCDesigner]

Make him climb into a box, then post him to a University

 

[JMCDesigner]

.....don't include a return address

 

[alanc]

Book: C++ in 21 days
(I even think there is a C++ for Dummies)

 

[estwig]

If you think he's annoyed now, wait until he starts trying to learn C++!!!

That'll put the wind in his sails!!

 

[Styleloft]

Theres an "app" for that!!

 

[joelietz]

If you think he's annoyed now, wait until he starts trying to learn C++!!!

That'll put the wind in his sails!!

Well I told him "Just cause I know everything there is to know about digging a proper hole in the dirt, it doesn't mean I want to dig that hole. The same thing is true for programmers, they still pay for software, especially if they are good programmers with lots of income."

 

[Logistika]

absolute madness, C++ is one of the hardest things to learn and offers no real benefit in real world (i.e. talking to web and/or database) performance benefits. The learning curve is massive.

I agree with the first part, disagree with the second, and agree with the third part. However, ultimately the learning curve is worth it, not merely in terms of achieveing vocational satisfaction, but also in the ability to understand the issues of programming real world scenarios from a bottom up & top down approach.

If you think he's annoyed now, wait until he starts trying to learn C++!!!

That'll put the wind in his sails!!

The good thing about wind is that it can either be a head win or a tail wind, and todays head wind can be tomorrows tail wind.

 

[mobyme]

Point him here http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html#c++tutorial mind you I would love to be a fly on the wall.
I picked up C++ pretty easy because I already had C under my belt but I honestly cannot remember the last time I used it.

 

[Cohesive Computing]

Well, in my view learning and becoming proficient in C++ will be a costly investment which is not likely to pay off.

I've not used it since 1998.

 

[Logistika]

Well, in my view learning and becoming proficient in C++ will be a costly investment which is not likely to pay off.

I've not used it since 1998.

Its only costly (monetary ways) if he pays for one of these expensive courses. Otherwise the only cost is his time. I agree in the downturn in use of c++ in the private sector, principally due to visual languages and that detestable java. I hadn't used c++ in over 15 years, but the discipline of learning it helped immensely in other language based assignments.

However a few months ago, I began using it for a specific purpose, and realised again how beautiful it was, how maddening it was, and how satisfying it was. Just like being reunited with an ex fiance.

 

[aoteg]

You need to Learn "C" first before moving to learning C++
this following should give you a strong fundamental

http://www.vtc.com/products/c_plusplus_fundamentals.htm

 

[wasim989]

I did games design and programming at staffordshire university earlier this year with C++ being the primary programming language for games.

Their approach was to introduce the concept of programming through java and then move on the normal C.

once these 2 languages had been learned (at quite a basic level) we are moved onto c++ which then seams easier than learning java was due to the knowledge already aquired from java and C.

Hope this helps

 

[soft-industry]

I recomend the next two books:
The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup and Andrei Alexandrescu - C++ Coding Standarts