Where can I find good C++ source code?

Question

Duplicate of:

• What C++ open-source projects have good and clean code to learn from?
• excellent examples of real c/c++ code? Suggestions needed
• What are some examples of exceptional C++ open-source code?

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I am learning C++ as a first language. I feel like I am about to hit a ceiling on my learning (I am not learning through a class) if I don't start looking at actual code soon. Here are my two main questions:

1. Where can I find source code
2. What is a good litmus test on code's quality (<-- I've obviously never developed in a work environment)

I hope this is relevant to SO, but I can see the need to close this. Thanks for the help.

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Related:

• Examples of “modern c++” in action?

Answer 1

The net is chock-full of open-source C++ code. Why not pick a few such projects, and, even better, start helping out of them? No better way of learning than by doing!

Answer 2

I think your two best bets for finding C++ code are to go to the popuplar open source repositories.

• CodePlex: http://codeplex.com
• Google Code: http://code.google.com
• SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/

These all have high quality C++ projects you can take a look at. I don't think there's a great metric for judging quality on a large scale. I would start with the more popular projects which may be more likely to have quality code.

Answer 3

I would recommend getting a good book, which will be packed full of source code examples!

C++ in a Nutshell

You can also search open source code at www.koders.com

Answer 4

I would recommend Boost. Using Boost will simplify your program design. Reading Boost source code can show you how to use C++ to solve some challenging problems in a concise way.

This add on library is itself written in C++, in a peer-reviewed fashion, and has a high standard of quality.

Answer 5

Google Code University lets you search through programming topics and resources from many of the world's computer science schools.

Google Code University

Answer 6

C++ is a great language, but kind of heavy as a first language. Try python.

1) Where can I find source code

Reading code is harder than writing it. This is especially true of large, complex languages like C++. Without already knowing the intricacies of the language, you don't stand much chance of getting knowledge from the complex code others write in production. You're going to have to learn the very smallest parts first, on your own by writing it. As you learn c++, you will also learn programming.

2) What is a good litmus test on code's quality

There isn't one. That's not going to be an easy thing to learn, either. It comes from experience. But really, the way you know the good code from the bad, is that after you've had some time to familiarize yourself with the layout of a project, you can understand what any given piece does, after you look at it. Readable code has quality, whereas confusing code falls short.

Looking at other peoples code is a hard way to learn the basics. Find a tutorial on the net and get your feet wet that way. I'm sure there are many, fine printed books on the subject as well.

As you go, and get stuck or confused or lost, post questions here.

Answer 7

I think you got some good answers already, I would like to add this suggestions for picking a project from one of the open source project repositories: Pick a widely used but preferably smaller project that has been around for a while and targets a domain that you are specifically interested in. That way you will be able to get a better idea of production ready code and be able to learn something about that domain.

Answer 8

koders.com; sourceforge.net

Regards, Bill Drissel

Answer 9

The List:

• SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/
• Boost: http://www.boost.org/
• CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/
• Google Code: http://code.google.com/
• Google Code University: http://code.google.com/edu/
• koders.com: http://www.koders.com/

Answer 10

I found the source code and documentation of POCO are quite readable, and

1. unlike some other open source projects that focus on handling one specific problem, say GUI or Logging, this library focuses on developing a complete application, thus covering a quite broad area(file system, text processing, networking, logging etc ).
2. it uses modern C++ idioms. So by reading the implementation you can learn modern C++ skills as well.

Answer 11

I would recommend OpenSG It is an interesting topic, it uses concurrency modeling, networking, includes links to scientific papers, is well documented, uses real c++ not c with objects stuff and almost all subparadigms and doesn't overuse them, is easily accessible AND who would have guessed... I am a fan of it ;)

OpenSG - Home