C++ as a first language [closed]

Answer 1

For me learning C++ is mostly about learning how NOT to shoot yourself in the foot. It can be a painful exercise as with C++ there is always another edge case that will make the gun go off as it's pointing at your hoof.

The up shot is, if you manage to finish the exercise, you'll be a better developer for it, and you will be able to spot future foot shooting opportunities before they happen, in what ever languages you end up using.

Also, when some third part library shoots it's self in the foot, you'll be better positioned to grok what went wrong than others that haven't repeatedly shot their feet for months on end.

I'd say stick with C++, it's not a waste of time, even if you never write a single line of production C++ code.

Hope this helps :)

BW

Answer 2

While I'm sure C++ is a great tool to have inside one's box, i would carefully advise against learning it as a first language.

C++ is a powerful tool for professionals. You can do horrible things with it (http://chaosradio.ccc.de/camp2007_m4v_1951.html). Sometimes you will have a very hard time trying to understand the errormessages. It has features like manual memory management and pointer arithmetic which clearly have they're place in systems programming and software with very high performance requirements (games...) needs them, but they are are hard to get inside ones head and are not very useful outside those niches. When I switched from c++ to java I really learned a lot faster, but that may be just a personal thing.

Answer 3

There are two types of languages. The 'kitchen sink' and the 'minimalist'. The kitchen sink language gives you everything under the sun they can think of that might be useful. The minimalist gives you only what you need to develop anything you might ever conceive of. C++ is minimalist. You can certainly write things and share them with others but by default it comes with nothing.

C++ is also (one of) the hardest language for programmers. Managed/interpreted languages do a lot of things for the programmer. C++ does nothing but it also doesn't get in your way or make you pay the overhead of management.

Are you aiming to be an expert with MAD SKILLZ or just playing around?

Answer 4

Lots of support for c++ here, but I have to disagree. Every language has it's plusses and minuses (some achieve a better balance than others, of course).

That being said, for a first language, I'm convinced most people will learn how to program more effectively with a language that a) doesn't have an edit-compile-run cycle (which is inherently slower for you as the programmer b) has garbage collection c) has good runtime introspection. Best of if there is an interactive evaluator as well, to mess about with.

Development (if not runtime) is almost invariably faster in such languages, there are fewer things to trip you up, and there are better tools to help figure what went wrong when it did.

Which isn't to say learning the vagaries of memory management in a language like c++ isn't something worth doing, etc., etc., it just isn't the place you really want to start.

Another issue with c++ is that for all its practicality the sheer size of it added to the fact it has incompatible parts that can lead to subtle issues best avoided as a beginner.

edited: John D brings up the point in a comment that some people who learn first on a GC'd language (which is by no means limited to "scripting" languages) never learn pointers later. This is a red herring, though. Some people fail to learn all sorts of things, for all sorts of reasons. I maintain that worrying about pointers is a distraction when you're learning the basics. At some point you may well need to learn about manual memory management, but it's not fundamentally important to do this at first. Or more accurately, the gains made by avoiding this are more important than the costs.

Let me be clear though, I'm not saying that c++ is an inferior choice for a first language because it lacks garbage collection. That's just one of many issues that get in the way of learning the fundamentals of programming well. The real problem is that it is a large complicated language, with quirks all over the place and even internal inconsistencies (e.g. pointers and exceptions don't play well together). Of course all of this can be managed properly and you can learn good practice to keep from getting in trouble.

However, none of this will make much sense to a real neophyte at first. So some of learning it will end up being "do it this way, not that way". "why?" "because I said so --- you won't understand the details yet". Hardly an auspicious start.

The bigges gains for learning a first language though are probably in avoiding a edit-compile-run cycle (of any kind) and having good introspection.

Answer 5

C++ is a tough first language to learn, but it's not impossible, and you will learn alot from it. The key to it, like anything else, is to not give up if you don't understand something. Ask questions, and read if something isn't working. Eventually you'll find an answer. I think the best quote I can give you about your task comes from Randy Pausch:

“Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show you how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something bad enough. They are there to keep out the other people.”

Answer 6

I think C++ is a good overall first language to learn because it has a little bit of everything. It's not like high level scripting languages where you never really have to deal with types, memory, or pointers and it's not direct-hardware access like assembly. It's somewhere in the middle. If you learn C++ you'll basically have a skill set that will translate easily to other languages.