What project would you recommend me to get up to speed with C++

Question

I know that C++ is a very complex language that takes many years of practice to master. Taking that into account do you know of a small project (around a 1k of loc) that tests all of C++ major features (inheritance, pointers, memory management, etc). The thing is I'm a Java/Python programmer and I really want to learn C++ so I've been studying C++ for a while but haven't tested anything of what I've learned beyond small exercises. I want to take all of that knowledge and put into practice. Thanks :)

Answer 1

Doing this alone you will obtain many harmful habits. It's much better to get an internship with a company that has high competence in C++ development and train under guidance.

C++ is like a grenade without a safety pin – looks cool and you've heard that all "real professionals" use it, but you don't know when it is to explode. A tremendous amount of features that can be used for good or for evil without knowing whether it's really good or evil. That's why guidance is a must here.

Answer 2

I'd recommend creating a text based game. That really helped me firm up my C++. Doesn't take too long and you can exercise all the features you want. Come up with the game yourself. It is more fun that way.

Another great idea is to write a simple mathematics library, supporting Vectors Matrices etc. But with todays libraries, that is only of academic use.

Answer 3

Depends on what area you want to work in. But nothing worth doing correctly comes in at less than 1000 lines of code.

If you are going to be writing games then try writing a Tetris clone.

If you think you will be using sockets etc then writing a simple chat/irc client would help.

Do you have a specific itch that needs to be scratched? When was the last time you thought "this sucks, I could do better?". Can you do better?

Answer 4

A memory manager. That should get you thinking about:

• free store management
• pointers (of course!)
• inheritance (you will want your driver code to use this)
• templates (another way to pass the manager around -- driver #2)
• designing user defined data structures (a memory block)
• efficient use of standard container(s)
• algorithms (to move around, figure out empty blocks, defragment)

Answer 5

I'm not sure about anything that tests all major features. There are a lot of them, and some are rarely used together (templates and virtual functions come to mind. Both achieve a form of polymorphism, so you often use one or the other depending on your needs.)

A suitable project in that it'd touch on all the important features might be something apparently simple like writing a correct container class, similar to std::vector or std::list. Ensure exception safety, iterator validity, the appropriate time complexity on all operations and every other requirement specified in the standard.

The problem with this, as well as most other projects, is that you won't really know when you're done. Making a resizable array might take 50 lines of code, and 20 minutes of your time. And then a beginner would think he's done. Making it exception-safe requires you to be able to spot all the places where the class might be thrown into an inconsistent state by an exception.

That's a kind of general problem with C++. It's easy enough to think you get it, and the compiler certainly won't notify you of aspects you've forgotten to handle. So you might think your code is perfect, and yet it'll crash for all sorts of odd special cases.

As sharptooth said, for a language as messy as C++, writing code on your own is risky. It is easy to fall into the trap of "I've written some code, it compiles and it seems to run. Therefore it is correct". Of course you could post your code here or on other sites for review, or maybe just supplement your coding with reading the docs for actual high quality C++ code (most boost libraries tend to have comprehensive documentation, specifying both the rationale for various design decisions, and how it safely handles all the weird special cases that tend to crop up in C++. The C++ standard itself would be another excellent resource, of course. In either case, these might help you determine what problems to look out for)

Answer 6

When I was learning C++, I used it to write my own language for writing Colossal Cave style adventures. Like most computer languages it never saw the light of day, but it did teach me a lot about C++.

Whatever you choose the thing to avoid when learning C++ is GUI programming, which is a trap which will drain all your gumption and probably teach you bad C++ habits in the process.

Answer 7

I would recomend writing a Tetris clone. You can learn a lot of c++ concepts with this and learn a 2d library like SDL or maybe even OpenGL throgh SDL.

It is always good to have a project with visual results and at the end of it you can play it.

Answer 8

Google Chrome

Answer 9

Effective C++ and More Effective C++

Other than that, pick a (small?) personal project you want to write and do it in C++. You are not going to learn C++ by reading a 1000 line project.

Answer 10

An interactive world: A matrix where each position can be a Void or a Being. A Being is something with a few attributes: age, Time left, gender, neigbor connections, etc. Capable a few interactions: fights, having sex and kids, friendships, etc. Some have special Skills, depending on their fathers (inherited trades)... like ability to kill, ability to make food,, etc... Possible outcomes of those interactions and skills are changes on the self attributes, or creating offspring (when possible), or change neigbor attributes.

At each iteration, print the matrix as symbols/numbers on the console (depending on the attributes, etc), starting from a Biblical iteration 0 (initial conditions of your choice... you're God here).

Now you got some real-life pattern simulator, and learned something about inheritance, polimorfism, virtual functions, instantiation of classes, etc.

Answer 11

I would suggest a simple text editor would be a reasonable goal.

It's a problem domain that you have a good grasp of.

You have memory management issues, library class reuse issues (stl/curses?), pointer issues, and lots of options where derived classes can be used.

For polymorphism, perhaps, you can have the editor read from a keyboard, or suck commands in from a text file.

There is another good one.... dealing with files.

You don't have to cross platform it. You don't have to open source it. You don't have to show it to anyone. You don't even have to finish it. It can be an exercise just for you.

Answer 12

There seem to be two themes coming from the answers:

1. You need to pick a project that might involve more than 1K LOC in order to get the true experience of the project.

2. You need to also pair up with an experienced C++ developer, who can help you think through problems and avoid pitfalls associated with the language.

You can get around both of these by swing by sourceforge.net and signing up to help with an existing C++ project. As long as you don't mind your code being open source, you should be able to find an existing project to learn from plus experienced developers who can help by reviewing your code and offering guidance.

Answer 13

In order to learn C++ it is useful to look at a lot of well written C++ code. I think the Qt library is quite nice for this so I suggest: Write an Qt application.

Look how they use C++ and create your own graphical components in a similar fashion.

Ideas: - Stock chart viewer widget that connects to one of the financial websites and scrapes history data. - Simple Excel like spreadsheet widget.

Answer 14

If you're learning fron a book, it must have plenty of well-thought-out exercises you can implement and learn from. Also check out the university sites and their C++ labs / assignments.