A dog chasing it's tail

zenassem · 2002-08-21T07:22:33

Somedays I feel like a dog chasing it''s tail. For some reason I never seem to get anywhere in programming, and believe me I have put in the time and money, I''m just never where I need to be. Of course the gaps in between programming have taken their toll. I''m not lazy or uninterested, it''s just that P/T college (even in a computer science curriculum forces you to deal with more than just c++), f/t work, relationships, life etc. etc... I''m starting to wonder whether I''ll ever get the tools into my toolbox. I''ve taken 3 courses in C++ (2 course of assembly 8086, two visual Basic), one an anvanced course in c++ data structures, over the course of three years. Yet I still feel like I''m nowhere. How can this be? All of my C++ courses dealt soley with console apps. The data structures course dealt with templates, pointers, sorts, trees, stacks, dyanmic arrays, linked lists etc.. but all were reinventing the wheel. And all the courses some how missed out on the 1998 C++ standard. None of them even touched the Standard Library. I''ve just recently learned not to use .h extensions, and that was from this site! No one even mentioned std:: namespaces. I just picked up a book in the Jesse Liberty series C++ standar Library from scratch. I have hardly any knowledge of MFC, so I purchased a sams book on visual c++. I''ve learned basic windows programming fro TOTWPG (Lammothe) and have done some basic 2-d apps with DirectX7, haven''t bothered with 3D, but it seems like now I need to in order to take advantage of directx8. also, someone directed me to SDL. I own a lot of other books on game programming that I haven''t even got to, Although I''m currently working with Game programming "All in one". I just feel like I''m always 100 steps behind. I know that this is more of a rant than a question but I just had to get it off my chest. I''m just tired of feeling like a wannabe programmer. (I still can''t write windows\directX apps without copying most of someone elses code. Argghhhh!). I''ve downloaded Genesis3d, but it just seems like learning someone elses code. I just don''t know what direction to go anymore. Does anyone else feel this way? Where did I go wrong?????

For Beginners

Started by zenassem August 20, 2002 02:09 PM

9 comments, last by zenassem 22 years, 4 months ago

CaptainJester

523

August 21, 2002 07:21 AM

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

I graduated from community college in 91. The diploma I got basically touched on the basics of a lot of stuff, but never did anything in depth. I didn't get a computer job until 92 and that was in a mainframe environment, not a PC one.

I got pretty discouraged and didn't do any programming until a couple of years ago. Then last year I found this site, after reading Tricks...Windows Gurus, and have learned a great deal from that book and this site.

Anyway, the best way to do things is to keep learning and always challange yourself. As someone said earlier, create a project for yourself. This will help you find things you are having trouble with and give a place to start searching for information.

Now I am 33 and plan on getting a degree, part-time. This is going to take a hell of a long time, but hey as long as I never stop learning, I am happy.

---
Make it work.
Make it fast.

"I’m happy to share what I can, because I’m in it for the love of programming. The Ferraris are just gravy, honest!" --John Carmack: Forward to Graphics Programming Black Book

[edited by - CaptainJester on August 21, 2002 8:22:33 AM]

"None of us learn in a vacuum; we all stand on the shoulders of giants such as Wirth and Knuth and thousands of others. Lend your shoulders to building the future!" - Michael Abrash[JavaGaming.org][The Java Tutorial][Slick][LWJGL][LWJGL Tutorials for NeHe][LWJGL Wiki][jMonkey Engine]

A dog chasing it's tail

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