I think the best way is probably to learn the basics (either by a course or by yourself, whichever way works better for you) and then start learning the stuff on your own and have someone you can ask to help with certain aspects if you get stuck or don''t understand something. (and I mean in real life, not online, online can help, but its easier to understand stuff when it''s person to person; or at least it is for me.)

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Original post by vincoof
School does not really teach OpenGL in detail, just the basis.

Even though school is a good start, it''s just nothing more than a start, and I think that all of us have learned "deep" OpenGL thanks to the Internet.

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I''m in college, learning computer sciences. I took a class teaching OpenGL. What I learned was what I needed to understand the tutorials of NeHe. So I totally agree w/ vincoof.

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Original post by Xnin
hi, ok but if universitys are teaching say basic c++ or other programming language (basics only). What happens then if a guy wants to work somewhere were they use a programming language that the guy doesnt know, or knows only the basics. Will he have to learn it himself in his own time?

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Probobly not, if they hired you, then they teach you what you need to know, even if your an expert on that language it will take some time relearning the way you code to fit the companys coding style.

If they hired you they will make shure that you can do the job, if not they are stupid(bakabakabakabakabakabakabakabaka).

I just became fourteen years old, and i have been programming OpenGL for nearly a year now =). I haven't learnt anything at school, since i'm only in the ninth grade. It started when i found NeHe's site, and I took a great interest in OpenGL. Then for half a year a go I bought The OpenGL red book, and I've also read C++ for dummies, (not a very good choice if you want to learn C++). Now I'm getting the OpenGL Game Programming book. I guess you don't have to go to school to learn OpenGL =).

James

[edited by - James Trotter on January 13, 2003 4:41:59 PM]

still, the fact remains, go to pretty much any employer and say "I taught myself" and you''ll get a stange look before being kicked out the door. It''s one of those sad ironys really, as you will find 100% of all university lectureres, etc, are all self taught, but importantly, have also been taught the methodoligies and structures you can only get from the likes of a university.

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Original post by Sky

As a note to the more advanced OGL programmers, I personally find it a great help when a program has been released with the source code. I've found that going through someone elses code is one of the best ways to pick up ideas, tips and programming knowledge for a specific language.

I agree, and alot of people have said they learned just by looking at other people's code, but that doesn't make much sense to me… You need to know at least what some of the functions do before you can learn from other's code.

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Ideally someone else's code and a reference manual, and then going through their code and referring to the manual to get a grip on what is being done. By playing round and changing various settings (to what ever scope the manual lists), it is possible to work out how to achieve different effects. Knowing about the functions isn't a prerequisite to delving into the code, but it's invaluable to understanding what's going on. And examples are the best way to glean knowledge, as long as experimentation is thrown in by the learner.

Cheers,
Jeroen


[edited by - BigBoy on January 13, 2003 9:33:09 AM]