🚀 go-pugleaf

Dennis Clark (dlc@lamar.ColoState.EDU) wrote:
: C++ classes.  There isn't one.  You couldn't do enough in just a language
: class to fill a semester.  So, you use a specific class to learn C++ while
: learning analysis/design/simulation instead.  
: You can teach someone a language
: in about a week.  OO design/analysis takes longer, etc.  
: Look for interesting
: classes and then find out what language they use to teach it.

I used to agree with Dennis, but have learned from experience that it
isn't so.  I've taught CS 414 for a number of years now, and lead off
the course by covering the necessary essentials to use the language
well.  Through spring semester, that language was C++.  Starting this
fall it will be Java.  It took me about four weeks (12 lecture hours)
to cover the necessary bits of C++ that people hadn't been taught in the
prerequisite courses.  I expect it to be a similar story for Java.

I do agree that a self-motivated learner could sit down with a
very good book and a workstation and teach themselves the essentials
in perhaps forty hours of their time.  Of course, you'd have to know
what the appropriate very good books were...

If you want to learn C++ at the level of really knowing the language
and supporting libraries, I recommend the following:

    Either "The C++ Programming Language" by Stroustrup or
    "C++ Primer" by Lippman, depending on your personal preference.

    Effective C++ (2nd ed) by Meyers
    More Effective C++ by Meyers

    Exceptional C++ by Sutter

Master those, in that order, and you'll have made a good start.
You might also want to have a copy of "The C++ Standard Library"
by Josuttis.

Yes, I taught a subset from those sources for CS 414.

    Ken Shrum