Newbie C++ programmer again...

[David Sinck]

\_ math... An optional part of the assignment is to validate the user
\_ input and be sure it is a numeric value (float), and not an alpha
\_ charater, symbol, etc...  If they enter something that will not
\_ work, they are supposed to be prompted to try to enter the info
\_ again...  

\_ Preventing negative values is no problem with 

So, what you're saying, is that you can't ask "If I drop $20 in the
'nickel' slots in Berlin, how much would I be down in DM?"  Or "My
balance with the Germany bookey is -$54.2 DM...how much should I wire
dad for?"  

We won't ask about national deficit numbers like -5.34E9 and other
largish important numbers.

\_ something that should be painfully simple...  Is this something too
\_ complex for a beginning programmer?  

Nope, headbanging is an important start to learning programming.  I
remember spending hours tracking down that my new sub (less-than)

didn't strictly test for <.  It was more of a <=.  And when you're
using it in quicksort, ....

There was a good LART from the instructor when he tracked that one
down finally.

OTOH, it did have full lisp support so 

(< 3 5)      was true
(< 3 5 9 12) was true

lisp rocks.

\_ be a basic part of programming, but I could be wrong...  I notice a
\_ few people on here saying they don't use C++ much, so what is the
\_ language of choice for programming in Linux?

Depends on what you're doing.  Use the right tool for the job.  Or use
the wrong tool if you can get it done faster with good results.  It's
all subjective.  For newbies, get a few languages under the belt, then
go about deciding which is the best for the job.  When you have a
hammer, everything looks like a nail.  :-)

If you want some fun, wrap your mind around:
C, Lisp (or deritaves), and ProLog.

If you live through that, learn regexen and perl.  

Then you will know that that 'nail' is a screw, and that you can still
tighten it with the hammer.

David