Wanting to Advance

[paradox6996]

I'm going to school for CSC, and wanted to get ahead of my future classes in my off time. I have programming experience such as Beginner Java, VB.Net, and C++. Next fall I'm going to a 4 year university to finish my CSC degree and wanted to get a head start. My programming experience, goes as far as: get/ready cmds, arrays, making simple methods and classes, loops, if/else statements, etc.. I wanted to further my knowledge in programming and was wondering what is the next step. If anyone has some advice on what I should read up on please post it.

Thanx paradox

[scruggsy]

I wanted to further my knowledge in programming and was wondering what is the next step.

Keep programming. It doesn't matter what, as long as you continue finding new problems to solve.
Reading others' source code and figuring out what it's doing can teach you a lot.
Getting involved in an open source project with more experienced programmers can teach you even more.
Good luck.

[paradox6996]

Keep programming. It doesn't matter what, as long as you continue finding new problems to solve.
Reading others' source code and figuring out what it's doing can teach you a lot.
Getting involved in an open source project with more experienced programmers can teach you even more.
Good luck.

just wondering if there is more advanced stuff to programming, besides what I mentioned about If/else statements, loops, arrays, get/ready cmds. I always thought there was something more complexed, if not then I'm way ahead then I thought. Either way I'll take your advice on the open source project, I always have fun programming.

[Ganon11]

Check out some Object Oriented Programming concepts, especially classes. What you have so far is called Procedural programming, and is very useful, but also limited in the real world today. Java is a great language to learn OOP in, but C++ will also do well. Pick up a programming book and start working through exercises.

[paradox6996]

Check out some Object Oriented Programming concepts, especially classes. What you have so far is called Procedural programming, and is very useful, but also limited in the real world today. Java is a great language to learn OOP in, but C++ will also do well. Pick up a programming book and start working through exercises.

That helps me out, I guess I should write programs that utilize other classes to complete their objectives. I've written one at the end of my Java class. Anyone have any suggestions on an immediate to advanced book, pdf, article, etc... for C++. Free would be great since I'm a poor college student but I'll buy it if I have too.

P.S If anyone knows anything about Computer Science majors it would be real helpful to tell me what I can expect in my classes, and what an employer would expect from me. I've googled this for quite some time and only have found vague answers, and would like something more exact. I know their is a lot of different fields for Computer Science majors such as: Research all the way to Robotics, Logistics, Algorithm testing, Sequential Functions etc.. Anyone of these will work as an example.

Thanx for the help much appreciated.

[scruggsy]

Free: Thinking in C++ Vol I and II. Yeah, free, if reading a book online doesn't bother you.
Bookstores are full of shallow worthless books on C++. One of the few exceptions is C++ Primer Plus. Highly recommended.

My personal experience in college CS classes has been severely underwhelming. Your mileage may (hopefully will) vary.

[oler1s]

just wondering if there is more advanced stuff to programming, besides what I mentioned about If/else statements, loops, arrays, get/ready cmds.

Oh, no not really. You get paid serious bucks in companies for knowing just this stuff....8-\

I have no idea what get/ready commands are. You haven’t done much more than breach basic syntactical constructs used in programming languages. It’s an important step to learning programming, but it’s a small step.

Anyone have any suggestions on an immediate to advanced book, pdf, article, etc... for C++.

I usually tell beginners to obtain C++ Primer by Lippman and Accelerated C++ by Koenig. Once you can work through both the books, you can take on some of the more advanced C++ books around like “Modern C++” by Alexandrescu and so on.

I realize as a student you’re pretty cash strapped. The books I advocate can be pretty easily found though as they are well recognized, so I’m sure a bit of diligence on your part will do the trick.

[paradox6996]

Free: Thinking in C++ Vol I and II. Yeah, free, if reading a book online doesn't bother you.
Bookstores are full of shallow worthless books on C++. One of the few exceptions is C++ Primer Plus. Highly recommended.

My personal experience in college CS classes has been severely underwhelming. Your mileage may (hopefully will) vary.

kool thanx guys, your comments are greatly valued. I thought my road to a CSC degree would be a lot longer then I thought. I'm gonna work on integrating classes to work with each other, and make them as secure as possible. I figure this would be my next step in programming. If I have any more questions I'll post them and again thank you for the help.

[sicarie]

That helps me out, I guess I should write programs that utilize other classes to complete their objectives. I've written one at the end of my Java class. Anyone have any suggestions on an immediate to advanced book, pdf, article, etc... for C++. Free would be great since I'm a poor college student but I'll buy it if I have too.

P.S If anyone knows anything about Computer Science majors it would be real helpful to tell me what I can expect in my classes, and what an employer would expect from me. I've googled this for quite some time and only have found vague answers, and would like something more exact. I know their is a lot of different fields for Computer Science majors such as: Research all the way to Robotics, Logistics, Algorithm testing, Sequential Functions etc.. Anyone of these will work as an example.

Thanx for the help much appreciated.

Just keep at it. There are some really interesting jumps between high school, college, and your first job. I did very well in my programming classes my senior year in college, and after my first year in the corporate world I looked back at my code from school and thought, "what the heck was I doing here?!"

Pay attention to good coding skills, how to read documentation and actually learn from it (not have to go to someone to have it explained), and the design patterns.

[weaknessforcats]

Knowing C++ is like knowing English - and that won't get you a job. You need to learn some other stuff:

1) Learn object-oriented design concepts and design. There are entire learning programs here. Often, a design will be done using these concepts.
2) Learn UML as a means to apply the lessons learned in (1) above.
3) Learn an application area. All your knowledge is no good unless you can apply to something.