I'm looking to get into C++ programming.

I'm reading up on the dummy's book as I find some time,

I'm mainly doing this just because 1) I feel like it and 2) I would like a little money on the side

Are there any tips on programming itself or the money earning process?

Thanks,
help out a noob

 

how old are you? if not a student, what is your current profession? it's not that hard but i would recommend against it as a side job, though as a hobby it would be fine. even as a main job...i'm looking to get the hell out haha.

keep in mind you are competing against low-paid workers from eastern europe, india, china, south america, etc. unless you have some other value to add (specialty related knowledge, locale, etc), it will be rough. especially if you don't even know how to program now.

 

Programming is a pain in the ass, you have to be a certain type of person to do it. I learned C++ (simple stuff) followed by fortran (school required) followed by matlab (class required). I agree with rusty, unless you're fine with just doing it for fun or for yourself don't do it for the money, it wont be there unless you devote waaay more time than "time on the side" for it.

 

I think it depends on what you want to create. If you're looking to get into web development, there are other better/easier languages to learn that will get you producing things fairly quickly.

iPhone/iPad development is also a different stack of languages and technologies that you'll want to become familiar with.

With the techs of today I'd urge you to focus on some sort of web development and get started with Python or Ruby.

It's a lot of fun when you're making stuff you're interested in. I can imagine it would be pretty boring if you were just a code monkey.

 

I think I'm trying to get into some sort of web development, as you said.

What are the languages necessary for that type of code? From your post I understand that C++ isn't the best?

 

Take a class on web development at a community college to start with.

You can learn on your own, but not if you don't know what you need to know. The class will get you started.

 

NuncoStr8 is right, there are some good classes to get started with that will help to point you in the right direction.

Self-learning is also quite good but you will be more frustrated as you bounce around trying to figure stuff out.

If you're not familiar with the underpinnings of the web there are a bunch of things to learn so you can being to wrap your head around it and be able to create stuff. Lots of books and tutorials on the subject.

I've helped one or two people get started, what seems to work is to first get a decent understanding of HTML and CSS (Because the code that you write will be creating the HTML - it's what our browsers read). Then get some understanding of servers and their architecture and how that all works (Don't dive too deep, yet). Then dive into some web development framework that makes it easy to get started making dynamic sites. After that, then you can go deeper and deeper into the language you pick to get a real understanding.

For web-dev type stuff I'd suggest staying away from Java and .NET. They're used in most large organizations so go there if you want to get a job as a developer for one of the more established development companies. PHP has been around for a long time and has a large following and some frameworks that are built to be easy to use. The two languages that are being used by nearly all tech startups is Python and Ruby.

I don't have experience with Python but we're using Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Rails makes things very simple for developers. It does most of the things in a few minutes that Java and .NET developers used to spend a couple of hours doing. It's a little mind-blowing.

If you want to do it, just do it, and have some fun. The act of creating things is what makes it fun. Most learning happens by trying to do things you've never done before, breaking stuff, and then fixing it.

If you decide on Ruby and can't find something you want to do, try getting involved in an open-source project: www.github.com

 

C++ is NOT what you want for web development.

As mentioned things like PHP, CSS, HTML, Flash, etc are better languages.

 

add javascript to that list as well...and asp.net if you want to do work on the windows platform (php is the other option which is up there).

 

No? Java is a complete pain in the ass. If you are new to development stick with HTML for starters. It's easy as shit. This forum will teach you basics itself. Java is complete garbage IMO. I did terrible in that college class (still passed)