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- Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++
- Path: in1.uu.net!allegra!alice!bs
- From: bs@research.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup <9758-26353> 0112760)
- Subject: Re: help on watcom C++
- Message-ID: <DM2B37.Fzp@research.att.com>
- Organization: Info. Sci. Div., AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
- References: <4df3d4$i31@bolivia.it.earthlink.net> <4eleph$jd2@donatello.leonardo.net>
- Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 20:18:43 GMT
-
-
-
- steveh@fishnet.net writes
-
- > In <4df3d4$i31@bolivia.it.earthlink.net>, Anthony Kanner <kanner@earthlink.net> writes:
- > >I can really learn all of the features of watcom c++ without
- > >getting the BIG bookset?
- >
- > Read the online docs and look at the online examples?
-
- There are at least two distinct questions here:
-
- How do I learn C++?
- How do I learn Watcom's C++ program development environment?
-
- I suspect the answers to these two questions are not identical.
-
- It may be possible to effectively learn what is necessary for true
- mastery of a program development environment from the online documents
- and online examples. That is not my personal experience, but it is a
- claim often made. I find that an hour or two with an experienced user
- at the early stages of learning does miracles.
-
- Most people do not learn C++ well from documentation of language features
- and short examples. The concepts behind the features are likely to be lost.
-
- The key to good C++ programming is not comprehension of individual features,
- but an understanding of the concepts and techniques that these features
- were designed to support.
-
- In my experience, that understanding best obtained through a combination
- of reading and experimentation. For the reading part there is no substitute
- for a good textbook or at least a collection of good papers.
-
- By `good' I here imply texts that focus on concepts and the relationship
- between concepts and code, rather than texts that either gets so into
- concepts that they are of little use to practical programmers, or texts
- that focuss of handy hints or language-technical artistry at the expense
- of fundamental concepts.
-
- Reading by itself - without experimentation - is sterile.
-
- - Bjarne
-
-