Newbie C++ programmer again...

[Rob Wehrli]

rwehrli@azpower.com
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 16:33:18 -0700
Message-Id: <23331895400364@azpower.com>

> Nope, it's only my second week in the course... from reading ahead, I 
> recognize that you are making a class and that there is some pointer stuff 
> going on, pretty sad, huh? : )


It isn't sad at all.  C++ is an extremely complex and feature-rich language.  It took the standards committee several years to final ratify it.  When I went to the C++ World Conference last December in Miami, it was a *big* topic that everyone was talking about being standardized!

The average C++ programmer who thinks he/she is an "8" is probably only a two or three.  The average C++ programmer who thinks a "5" probably is.  The average C++ programmer who thinks a "7" maybe anywhere between a 1 and an 8.  A C++ programmer who thinks a "9" probably is, but his/her name is on at least 4 different titles in the nearest Border's.  A C++ programmer who thinks a "10" is a fool.  A C++ programmer who thinks a "1 or 2" probably is.  My point in all of this is that it is perfectly fine to be a beginner C++ programmer.  Just remember that a lot of advise you get from "experts" is probably worthless.

When someone talks over your head when you've already described yourself as a "newbie", well, maybe they're just trying to puff their shirts and probably they call themselves 8s :)  The important thing is to learn the basic constructs of the language so that you know them as naturally as reading the words of a simple book.  Then, there are dozens of areas within C++ where you can really soar to new heights as you please.  At the December conference, I met and talked with Angelika Langer who was (among other things) pushing her book on iostreams.  To look at her you would never think of her as an expert C++ programmer.  To talk to her, you'd think that she was confident and capable but not boastful.  I'm sure that if you asked her, she'd say that there was a lot more that even she could learn about C++.  While talking to Andy Koenig, Stan Lippman, Scott Myers, Herb Schildt, Marshall Cline, Ira Pohl, Jeff Alger, Tom Cargill, Mark Weiss...and a number of other "C++ Greats", you quickly learn an important lesson...you're not as strong as you thought you were because the language is just too involving and its uses too many...and it is evolving!

Take it one step at a time.  Look at it as a means to accomplish cool things on a computer.  It really isn't so bad once you figure out the basics of the language and know them by heart.  Later, everything else will start to make better sense as you build on a good foundation of fundamentals.  I started C++ in 1991 and in an average group of "other programmers" I'm probably a 5 or a 6 when sitting in a room with the Scott Myer's and Angelika Langer's, I feel like a 1 or a 2, but even then, I can sometimes find ways to contribute in experiences and interesting ways that are not strictly language dependent but more importantly (sometimes) usage/usability dependent.  Something I learned long ago was that just about everyone can show you something you didn't already know about computing whether it is programming or simply using a common application like grep.  It is those who think they know it all (self-proclaimed experts!) that make it hard for the rest of us to feel good about ourselves in not knowing everything.  Well, you can believe that everyone started somewhere and sometime and that they will be giving you only a reflection of their learning and not really the answers to your particular set of problems.  It will always be up to you to interpret the responses and determine how they apply to your needs.  In Miami, a room of two hundred of the strongest C++ people in the world sat for a couple of hours talking nothing but about the intricasies and uses of iostreams.  At least a dozen books touch broadly on the subject and several specialize in just that area.  Ask the next self-proclaimed expert you meet what they think of auto_ptr :)  It was the focus of a two hour discussion by Scott Myers that was worth every second!

Take Care.

Rob!