Question about C++

I have the book "Sams teach yourself C++ in 24hours". The thing I'm trying to grasp about C++ is why use it?

After I got the book I then started seeing books on "Visual C++".

So I'm curious as to why use "non-visual" C++ and what can I build with it?...I'm somewhat confused on this particular language.

 

Visual C++ is not a Language; Its a IDE(Integrated Development Environment) for C++. All it does is help you program in C++.

 

My quesiton was mainly about the non visual c++ (im meaning the c++ language)..i'm curious as to what I can build with it without the need of Visual C++

 

you can build whatever u want, there is not limit what u can code It all depends on the coder..

 

Non-interface things can be build without such an environment. You can write virusses/trojans for example (My guess is that's not what you want, but it's a clear example).

I wouldn't do anything without good environment any more though (I used Borland delphi in the past), because I want visual stuff for windows and such an environment works great (and has good libraries).
Though you can still learn very well from programming 'simple' stuff without an environment, when you're still a newbie. It's pretty good to do for a while to learn the basics.

 

So really, c++ is more of 'behind-the-scenes'?

 

Not really, u can create a whole view model aka GUI or as some people may call it "the frontend"

I've developed c++ applications that uses a GUI or command line aps. But one thing is for sure, that is that u need to dedicated a lot of your time to learn c/c++

 

The thing is that 'standard' C++ by itself is non-GUI (command line only). Visual C++ (the development environment) creates C++ applications that use the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) which in turn provide the GUI classes and functions.

It's all a little confusing when you first start out, but although MFC and Visual C++ are integrated, you can write MFC applications without Visual C++ and you can write non-MFC applications with Visual C++.

There are other C++ GUI libraries out there such as wxWidgets.

 

Learn C first and get a grasp on the STL libraries

Standard Template Library Programmer's Guide from Silicon Graphics if you're even remotely interested in learning C/C++

I was a C++ coder for IBM and if unless you know C/Unix/STL (maybe ATL) - your career is useless. MFC and WinApi are useless. ActiveX is an abortion. I wouldn't even take a $90K contract for 3 months programming for ActiveX.

Any other Emacs users out there ?

If you kids want the big money with options and early retirement I humbly suggest going UNIX based, learning emacs or vi and then going from there. If life is a series of "building blocks" you *have* to start with the fundamentals like arrays, string manipulation, casting and other low level introductions. Contrary to whatever you hear about .NET and JAVA, the real money is in Cobol/C and legacy systems. That's where there's a shortage of "young blood" because all the kids who consider themselves software engineers can code PHP, ASP or Cold Fusion... bah... no Fortune 500 company relies on those technologies.

This post is coming from someone who retired in my early 30's and collect a pension for 15 years at IBM, plus numerous stock options.

 

1.Data abstraction
2.Generic programming
3. Reuse

 

Yay! I bloody hope your right lol.
Not much legacy work here in England at the moment, but we still develop fresh systems in C++. .NET etc is too slow for our algorithms

 

C++ is a powerful language, i am learning it now. and i have started to love it.