Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven!mimsy!tove.cs.umd.edu!davew
From: davew@tove.cs.umd.edu (David G. Wonnacott)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Learning C++
Message-ID: <29911@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 91 20:21:21 GMT
References: <1108@tesla.njit.edu>
Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: davew@tove.cs.umd.edu (David G. Wonnacott)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 28

In article <1108@tesla.njit.edu> fer9483@tesla.njit.edu writes:
>DO I need to know C before attempting to tackle C++, or can C++ be learned on
>its own?

You do not need to know C before learning C++.  If your final goal is
to become proficient with C++, I would recommend that you do NOT start
by learning C for 2 reasons:

1) Although you will, in time, learn all the features of C (its a subset
of C++), you do not have to learn them first.  It is hard to do much in
C without knowing the entire language.  In particular, it can be hard
to understand the I/O facility and the traditional method for handling
strings, without an understanding of pointers and memory allocation.  If
you get a C++ compiler with the stream I/O library and a good string
library, you can put off the real subtleties of C & C++ until you are
comfortable with coding simple programs.

Perhaps even more important in the long run:

2) While the C language is a subset of the C++ language, good C style is
not a subset of good C++ style.  Much of the difficulty in teaching C
programmers to program well in C++ lies in trying to get them to let go
of some of the techniques they use all the time in C (I know this from
experience -- I spent several years teaching C++ to C programmers).


Dave Wonnacott (formerly of AT&T Corporate Education & Training)
davew@tove.cs.umd.edu