[Bench]

skyhawk133, on 20 Aug, 2007 - 11:14 PM, said:

All tutorials are reviewed by our moderating staff. Could you please link the tutorials in question and I'll bring them to their attention.

Sure, here's the ones which grabbed my eye.

http://www.dreaminco...owtopic9870.htm (All sorts of nonstandard code - maybe unnecessarily since the subject matter of the tutorial itself isn't platform-specific)

http://www.dreaminco...wtopic11809.htm ( uses void main() somewhere)

http://www.dreaminco...owtopic9872.htm - A whole bunch of problems (incl. iostream.h & void main)
- C++ code mixed with C (stdio.h and printf's aren't very C++ like) - Not an error as such, but poor C++ style, since 'C'-style code doesn't mix very well with much of the C++ Standard library (like std::strings).
- the array s[100] at the beginning overflows - array is sized 100, although the for-loop runs one-past-the-end.



I don't doubt the good intentions of the authors, I'm sure they all put time and effort in too, although one of the difficulties in writing such articles for an author unfamiliar with the ISO standard, is that he/she bases their article on their experiences with their own compiler, and 'may' end up publishing a certain amount of (unintentional) misinformation, or compiler-specific information, without realising, because their compiler fools them into thinking that everything's Ok.

[Xing]

Bench, on 21 Aug, 2007 - 04:28 AM, said:

Just out of curiousity, what are the standards to which tutorials are moderated? I only ask this, because upon a quick review of some of the C++ tutorials, there are some which contain some real glaring errors and alot of very nonstandard/nonportable code rather unnecessarily

for example, one particular tutorial contains extensive use of #include <iostream.h> and void main() as a part of the examples - Certainly not a good thing for someone learning the language to be exposed to.
Another one contains headers like <conio.h>, which is (I believe) an old Borland header - examples which include these are a complete non-starter on the majority of compilers, which de-values the tutorial as a whole IMHO.


I'm not totally surprised to see it - this sort of thing is littered all over the internet, but I think, in the interest of this website's credibility, and of the tutorials being of genuine benefit to learners, then it would be a good idea for the tutorial submission regime to be far more rigid in terms of ensuring the tutorials are of a high quality. (And one way to do that is to make sure that examples are tried & tested by a standards-conforming compiler in strict mode)

Just my 2-pence - What does everybody else think?

Rightly said Bench and the funny part is many of those tutorials are written by moderators themselves. Chris, you need to look into this.

[skyhawk133]

Bench, on 20 Aug, 2007 - 06:02 PM, said:

skyhawk133, on 20 Aug, 2007 - 11:14 PM, said:

All tutorials are reviewed by our moderating staff. Could you please link the tutorials in question and I'll bring them to their attention.

Sure, here's the ones which grabbed my eye.

http://www.dreaminco...owtopic9870.htm (All sorts of nonstandard code - maybe unnecessarily since the subject matter of the tutorial itself isn't platform-specific)

http://www.dreaminco...wtopic11809.htm ( uses void main() somewhere)

http://www.dreaminco...owtopic9872.htm - A whole bunch of problems (incl. iostream.h & void main)
- C++ code mixed with C (stdio.h and printf's aren't very C++ like) - Not an error as such, but poor C++ style, since 'C'-style code doesn't mix very well with much of the C++ Standard library (like std::strings).
- the array s[100] at the beginning overflows - array is sized 100, although the for-loop runs one-past-the-end.



I don't doubt the good intentions of the authors, I'm sure they all put time and effort in too, although one of the difficulties in writing such articles for an author unfamiliar with the ISO standard, is that he/she bases their article on their experiences with their own compiler, and 'may' end up publishing a certain amount of (unintentional) misinformation, or compiler-specific information, without realising, because their compiler fools them into thinking that everything's Ok.

This has been brought to the moderators attention and is being worked on. I believe one of them has already been corrected.

[Amadeus]

As is the case with many sites, a good portion of users are not familiar with ISO or ANSI standards, nor do they use compilers that enforce those standards.

If you read through the forum posts, you'll note that many of the more experienced programmers do indeed promote the use of standards, indicating where code is non-compliant, and suggesting compliant alternatives. We also point out the pitfalls of using non-standard code.

On a website of this size, it is of course difficult to catch all such instances, especially as it applies to legacy code/posts - that which was submitted before enforcement of those standards became the current mode of operations on the site.

Your beliefs about conio.h are correct, although that one is easily corrected, as 99% of users include that header file simply to use the non-standard getch() function in order to hold open an execution window!

To summarize, standards are indeed of concern to the site admins, and efforts are being made to ensure that items like tutorials comply to standards.

[NickDMax]

Thenamesjoe, on 10 Sep, 2007 - 11:57 PM, said:

NickDMax, on 10 Sep, 2007 - 09:31 PM, said:

Thenamesjoe, on 10 Sep, 2007 - 01:40 PM, said:

ok i know i should prolly read this b4 i start requesting stuff but im a total noob to programing and by that i mean TOTAL i havent even started on my first code yet iv been looking for the slightest amount of help for about 3 months now i want to learn to code for fun just to give me something to do in my free time but mostly to make mods for online games and c++ is the language i need in order to do so.So Please Help me i have a yahoo ID on my profile or you can just mail my acc on here any suggestions will be helpful.Thank You

Well, there are many people here who can help. If you ask questions in the forum then others can also benefit from the answers.

Basically if you want to get into programming then I suggest you find a book and follow some examples. Although mod'ing games is exciting, it will take some work on your part. There are actually some nice books out at the moment that cover game programming and cover many of the major technologies and engines used (this is information that you will need to know how to mod the games) there are also many tutorials throughout the net on various mods to games.

ok so you mentioned books on the subject is there any that you might recomend?if so then please by all means let me know what they are as i said b4 im a total noob at this stuff

Thenamesjoe: I broke your topic off into its own thread so that others might see it a little more easily. You can find it here.

[rytskyo]

If anyone has experience with the beos API, I would love a comprehensive tutorial on it, or better yet, a mentor of sorts of for which I would compensate.


Ryt

[prasad_1]

NickDMax, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 04:42 AM, said:

While you are Dreaming.In.Code do you wish you had more Kudos or a Thumbdrive but just don’t have any good ideas for a tutorial? Well I have a bunch but just don’t have the time to write them all. So I decided to start the recommended tutorial topics list. If you see a topic you would like to tackle reply with your topic so we know someone is on it. If you can think of another good topic suggest it and I will add it to the list.

Most of these topics are very broad and only represent the basic subject matter. I am more than willing to suggest smaller sub-topics in any of these areas if you still can’t think of a project.
.
STL Topics:

• Using particular STL Containers, especially these: vector, deque, list, map queue, and stack.
  
• Using STL Iterators.
  
• Using particular STL algorithms.

.
Advanced Language Use:

• Function objects.
  
• Operator overloading.
  
• Template/Generic programming.
  
• Run-Time Type Identification (RTTI).

.
Fun:

• Writing obfuscated code/Obfuscation techniques.

.
Hot Topics:

• Steganography – The java tutorial was a big hit
  
• Cryptography
  
• Embedded Systems
  
• AI – especially game AI.
  
• Data Compression

.
Computer Science / Theory

• Advanced Data Structures
  
  
• Linked lists done, thanks mattman059
  
• QuickSort – How does it work? done, thanks csmanoj.
  
• Parsing – especially code.
  
• How to write an interpreter.
  
• Finite State Machines.
  
• Using UML in design of C/C++ programs.
  
• Graph theory
  
• Neural Networks esp. dealing with AI

.
Misc

• Debugging Techniques
  
• Lex/Yacc

.
Hardware

• Coding for embedded systems
  
• Programming for USB devices

.
Related technologies/third party libraries

• Basic Boost tutorial
  
• Basic QT tutorial
  
• Intro to Allegro
  
• Intro to OpenGL
  
• Intro to DirectX
  
• Using ANT to build projects
  
• Using Apache's Xerces C++

.


Please remember that all tutorials are reviewed for technical content by the moderators. None of us are professional editors but we do try to ensure that you do not embarrass yourself with incorrect content or ridiculously bad grammar. For the most part we will work with you to get a great tutorial out there.

hello sir/mam,
iwant to learn lalnguage c folllowed by c++ but how? tell me

This post has been edited by William_Wilson: 16 September 2007 - 08:01 AM

[William_Wilson]

Please post your questions only once, i have removed the duplicate.
This is not exactly the right forum for this question, but i would suggest looking over the tutorial and snippet sections for help on getting started.
There are also many good sites listed under the resources section.
C plus plus.com is a great resource to get started, and the members of DIC will be more than happy to help solve any errors or troubled output you may have.

[NickDMax]

oddly enough we don't have a "learning how to program in C/C++" tutorial. Probably because this is not really a simple topic. There is a lot to learning to program. Many people take many different routes.

My best advice on learning to program:
#1 Find a good beginners book. Stay away from windows programming initially as you will spend more time learning about the peculiarities of windows programming then programming.

#2 Find a good compiler. There are many freely available.

#3 Start out by copying programs out of the book, but as you go try to extend each program to do one or two things extra.

#4 Try to do any "Assignments" or problems that the book may give at the end of a section.

If you run into difficulties ask questions here on DIC: Give us the question, relevant code and any error messages and you will find a whole community there to help.

[Louisda16th]

Damn good point. I've been trying to write a beginner's tut for VB for about a month but didn't get far. That and school keeps me too busy .

[NickDMax]

I was just checking... and there are more VB tutorials than C++

We are falling behind folks!!!

[Louisda16th]

Whoa! There's a feud between the C++ and VB forums? What do you do If you're into both !!

[born2c0de]

Quote

I was just checking... and there are more VB tutorials than C++We are falling behind folks!!!

lol...We all love VB even though we hate to admit it

[NickDMax]

it is not a matter of liking VB or not. I liked VB well enough until it got .Net-iffied (and I would probably still like it if I had time to really learn .Net). I just want to see more C++ tutorials than VB ones.

[KYA]

Once we have a tutorial complete do we PM it to an admin or...? I didn't see the submit information in the orignal post.