A little about myself. I''m a 12 year old that lives in Iowa, USA. I have been into computers for over 2 or more years and for most of that I have wanted to program. Then for my last birthday my parents took me to a place with different computer stuff and I saw the software: "Game Programming Starter kit 4.0" I didn''t know what all was in it but I thought it would "TEACH" me and give me the stuff to do games. I was right and wrong. It gave me things to do games and that''s about it. Also a tutorial I guess I should say, on programming with Microsoft Visual C++ and DirectX. Well, a year has past and tomorrow is my 13th birthday and I have learned more about this stuff. I did try and start the tuts but never finished because I always wanted to start something new. This summer I''m going to put all my effort into it and I''m getting a tutorial book along with it Now my request is that someone tell me a good book for a tutorial on: "Microsoft Visual C++ introductory edition" Thank you, Mike :-)

I found Ivor Horton's "Beginning C++", ISBN: 186100012X, to be excellent for a beginner/inexperienced programmer. Covers all the basics of using C/C++ but stops short of getting into Windows. After going through that book I read Charles Petzold's "Programming Windows: The Definitive Guide to the Win32 API", ISBN: 157231995X, to get up to speed with Windows. Then I read a bunch of books about DirectX and almost every one I've read was excellent.

Biggest thing is to actually write programs. You can get all the theory in the world, but without learning to apply it you'll get nowhere. That's where I went wrong and programming is still just a hobby for me 12 years later.

[edited by - JimboC on May 23, 2002 7:31:17 PM]

Basically I''m a n00b too (10 years now and counting! ), but I usually just figure out what I want to code, and if I don''t know how, I dig up tuts, docs, sample sources, refs and learn how.

Motivational desire is the easiest drive for learning.

2D now!

I would recommend getting the book "C++ Primer Plus" by Stephen Prama, it covers pretty much all of the C++ standard, and it doesn't matter what compiler you use. Dev-C++ is very nice, and has the greatest standards support of the language. Oh, the book costs bout $40 at most bookstores.

[EDIT] Formatting.

"I am governed by none other than the Laws of the Universe."

[edited by - i8degrees on May 23, 2002 7:58:31 PM]

Well, I only get $40.00 and was assuming that the books would cost that much but does anyone know any good books (using the compiler I meantioned) that are like 20 bucks?? I would like to get a couple
Thanks,
Mike