What is a good project / way for an out of practice C++ developer to get back into it?

Question

Like many people here, I started my programming experience with the good ol' green screen BASIC that you get when you booted an Apple II without a disk. I taught myself C++ in my teens, and even took a class on it in college, but as soon as I discovered .NET and C#, I dropped C++ like a bad habit. Now, (many) years later, I'm interested in getting back into C++ development - thank the iPhone for that - and I have to admit, I feel a little daunted. Having to deal with pointers, ATL, macros, etc. seems a bit overwhelming at times when you've been in managed .NET land for a long time.

What are some good resources or weekend type projects I could do to ease me back into C++? I'm not interested in debating the relative merits between platforms, stacks, but I would be interested in hearing about objective comparisons between different development platforms, although keep in mind I'm a Windows guy.

If anyone wants to change the tags around, feel free - I wasn't quite sure how to tag this.

TIA!

Answer 1

If you're into the iPhone, grab the openGL demo for it and get modifying.
It's fun, you can show people and it's kept me busy for the last 3 months.

I'm about release my first app.

Answer 2

Try Euler Project

Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems.

Answer 3

While Project Euler or related sites are cool, for me they just don't hold my attention very much. I find the best way to start using a new technology (or refreshing an old one) is to find a project that scratches an itch that I am genuinely interested in. This is the only way I can maintain interest while learning something new.

Answer 4

I had this problem a while back, I chose to find a cool open source project.

I chose Chromium.

It was really interesting, and all C++

They have a vast number of small bugs which can be fun to fix, I ended up fixing about 4 in a few evenings/weekends. Check it out (pun intended)

Answer 5

You don't need to leave .NET to program for the iPhone, unless you want to...

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/01/open-source-mono-framework-brings-c-to-iphone-and-wii.ars

Answer 6

I haven't gotten around to doing this yet, but a friend of mine recommended building an ircbot. for me this doesn't really scratch an itch since I don't use IRC a whole lot and when I do I'm trying to talk to people.

I've thought about modifying his recommendation and instead building a web crawler. Though I'm not sure of the particulars of this sort of project it seems like a good one as it would teach you a lot of libraries at once, it might not exactly scratch an itch though.

How I DO currently get projects to learn a language is make a game. The game dev club at my school is small and holds periodic challenges for individuals/small groups to make a certain genre of game. This works for me, as it's somewhat competitive.

I would definitely recommend finding such a group, even if you're not going to school any more, a school dev club is always eager to have a professional around. And depending on the area you're in there are also groups that are not associated with any school.