Somebody please tell me that this guy is joking. Nobody could really read all those answers and then re-ask all the same questions really, could they?

No you don''t HAVE to work through the WHOLE book before doing anything else ... BUT you should plan to work through 70-100% of the book before leaving it alone ... you may start something else when you get 40-70% done and feel comfortable .. but realize jumping topic-to-topic / book-to-book is not as productive when you''re starting out. Once you are comfortable with programming basics .. THEN you can buy 3-4 books and only skim most of them, gleaming the important parts .. but starting out you should be meticulous and work through at least 80% of your first 2 books (IF they are any good).

ALSO ... you WILL be able to move into DirectX (slowly) when you finish that book .. BUT you will NOT be a master of C++ after one book ... you will still be a beginner .. but a beginner with a good start ...

what that book will NOT give you is general programming knowledge .. like a first college course would ... no theory ... here''s a taste: Abstract Data Structures (linked list, tree, stack), Sorting and Searching algortihms, good ownership and scoping practices. There are many more areas like this ... that you will pick up slowly if you try ... just by reading a lot and trying to understand as much as possible.

Good luck to you

ok, i''ll put it to you this way. learn to program in text, because the only difference in the code is

cout << "Hello" << endl;
-and-
DrawSphere(); //example

the code that sets up the program, variables, classes, file I/O, and everything but actual drawing is EXACYLY the same.

you can write a class called Map, that loads it self from a file, allocates all the memory it needs to be a Map of the size the file states and make the Draw() method print text or graphics, it doesn''t mater, but if you don''t know how to at least do text, then the graphics will confuse you more, trust me two years ago i tried to skip that step, and now that i''ve gone back and read the book i''m actualy getting a game together. so in sort READ THE BOOK!


p.s. sorry for rambling, i''m on some killer medication.



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Don''t take life too seriously, you''''ll never get out of it alive. -Bugs Bunny

quote:

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Q1: Do I REALLY (Avantagous or not) have to read and work through Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days in order to be able to start learning Windows-Windows Game Programming with C++ -DirectX-Opengl-2D-and 3D programming? Yes or No

Q2: After I finish that book, will I know the basics?

Q3: And If I will know the basics, can I go straight into the above different types of programming.

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1. No, but it would be a REALLY good idea to finish that book.

2. Yes. You will know the syntax to make a C++ program, but it will probably leave out a lot of computer programming concepts like linked lists, trees, recursion, data structures, etc.

3. No. Learn the programming concepts mentioned in 2. before jumping into games. It will make your life (and ours) much easier.

I don''t know if I''m allowed to do this, but here''s a link to my C++ profs. class notes.

http://www.scs.carleton.ca/~wli/2172/Notes.doc

I have read a few SAMS book, and I find they only give you a glance at the language, not enough to really know it. So read the notes, then read them again.

quote:

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I have a confession to make:

I AM A NEWBIE AT PROGRAMMING AND I DON''T KNOW WHERE TO START!

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We figured that one out

have you been reading The subtle art of trolling rodney?

After you finish your 21 days book, you might want to indeed peek into some general programming theory, instead of right away going to the Win32/DirectX stuff. Already having a good start on programming *correctly* will give you a major boost when you get to deal with all this crazy API/DirectX stuff (which by the way is mainly just learning a bunch of functions and what they do, plus a bit on how Windows works internally).

Don''t be rush to get into Windows programming, with DOS there is a unique advantage that you can get a program up and running quickly. Much easier for learning programming concepts, because you dont have to worry about a hundreds lines of code just to get the program to start!

I''ve changed my mind rodney. The first thing you need to do is learn to actually READ, because it''s obvious that you aren''t listening to us pretty much at all.

Q1: Do I REALLY (Avantagous or not) have to read and work through Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days in order to be able to start learning Windows-Windows Game Programming with C++ -DirectX-Opengl-2D-and 3D programming? Yes or No

Yes, dangit, yes, yes, yes, we''ve been telling you for 2 months YES. You need to do that to even THINK about starting to learn the rest of the topics, because if you compared this to learning to read, you haven''t even memorized the alphabet yet, and you''re going to have to be able to at least read and understand something about the level of Shakespear. k? When you get through 21 days, you might have the alphabet memorized, then we can point you to the Deitel and Deitel variety "See spot run" level.

Q2: After I finish that book, will I know the basics?

Probably not, because you''re probably not going to pay attention to the book, like you haven''t been paying attention to us. But, purely hypothetically, if you just HAPPENED to learn to pay attention, and actually worked through the book and understood everything, then you will have a teensy foothold in what we like to call "the basics". A decent comfort level with "the basics" takes a LONG TIME. You need to come to grips with that fact, and deal with it. You might also consider getting a refill on your Ritalin.

Q3: And If I will know the basics, can I go straight into the above different types of programming.

Short answer, yes. Long answer: you are not even prepared to understand what "the basics" consists of, at this point. One step at a time, please.

And please, please, please, READ what we''re telling you. We have no reason to lie, if you have 5 people saying "read the book" then dangit, read the flipping book, k?

-fel

People like that should be put to sleep !

I don''t think any of us could make it more clearer. Read the book! The whole book, word by work. Don''t skip any examples, even if you don''t think you''ll need them. Even if you have to re-read the entire book to understand it, do it! Reread anything you don''t understand and make sure you are very comfortable with basic programming by the time you finish. But, again, READ THE WHOLE BOOK! Don''t even blink! It will benefit you greatly! Sure, you won''t need to output text in a console for modern game, but learning to do that is a key factor in learning to do other things. And no, do not go straight into game programming after that book. First of all, buy a few books to improve your concept of the language. Learn how to do linked-lists, trees, and a couple of basic algorithms to get the feel of the language. Then, maybe buy a book on Windows Programming (Programming Windows by Charles Petzold is a good one). If you understand how windows works and can make a decent windows application, then you could move on to actual game programming. If nothing else, learning the Win32 API could allow you to make programs like map editors and stuff for your games. You could skip windows programming (I wouldn''t recommend it). But either way, you''ll at some point need to learn DirectX. Buy just about any book by André LaMothe (Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus is a very good one), and learn DirectX.

Just remember, what you do now will affect what you do in the future. Learn the basics and don''t skip anything. That is the biggest mistake make.

Ok finally I understand, Rodney JUST READ THE BOOK AND UNDERSTAND ITS CONCEPTS. Now that doesn''t mean read have the book and quit, OOHH NOOOO! It means read the entire book even though you might not need it later, read it anyway.

Now that I understand what everyone is telling me about how to start, and the basics, I guess I will go start reading and working my way through that book.

Q1: Oh yeah felisandra, after I finish working & reading through that book, will I be able to create text rpgs?

Q2: And are they fun to create?

Q3: Even though I am not ready for DirectX, Win32 API, Win32 Game Programming, or Windows Programming, does anybody know where I can buy or download some tutorials, ebooks, or books on the above topics?

I asked of this information because after I have a good feel on the language and its concepts, I going to slow move into the above topics. And I don''t think yall feel comfortable about me coming back here as question 3 again, so this is why I doing now so I can go ahead and get it out the way.

Thanks!