Learning C++ (was Re: [PyKDE] Line numbers in TextEdit box?)

[Jonathan Gardner]

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On Tuesday 12 August 2003 18:48, Peter Clark wrote:
> On Tuesday 12 August 2003 03:21 pm, Jonathan Gardner wrote:
> > If you do decide to go with a modified widget, you should really
> > learn enough C++ to read the code for Qt's widgets, and then run
> > from there.
>
> 	Sigh. :) Guess I'd better start those college courses, books, and MS
> Visual Studio, then. Does Visual Studio run under Wine? ;>
>

I think the best place to start for C++ is C. You can pick up any good 
book on C and you will probably have all the fundamental concepts in a 
few hours. Pointers might take some more time, but once you get them 
you are good to go.

Once you grasp C, C++ is pretty easy. You can pick up a good book on C++ 
and it will fill you in on the details of classes and templates. 
Otherwise, C++ is really C on steroids with a whole bunch of crap 
thrown in between.

It is only when you see how terrible C and C++ can be at times that you 
will truly appreciate the Zen state of python programmers.

As far as example code, there are tons and tons of it in the Free 
Software community. From the BSD and Linux kernels, to Apache, perl, 
python, ruby, to Qt and KDE, you will have all the code you can ever 
hope to read. Pick your favorite project, read the code, and ask 
questions. I guarantee you that people will answer them. You'll 
probably find bugs in the process, too.

I think those of us who are PyQt/PyKDE programmers really need to pick 
up at least the fundamental concepts of C++. We can't understand the Qt 
or KDE documentation unless we do. Maybe one day, someone will write a 
duplicate set of documentation written exclusively from a Python 
perspective, but until that happens, we'll have to lean on the C++ 
documentation.

- -- 
Jonathan Gardner <jgardner at jonathangardner.net>
Live Free, Use Linux!
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