Accelerated c++

Accelerated c++ [[Image:{{{picture}}}|200px]] What: Project Tagline: Accelerated C++. Maintainer(s): Jurgen Archived: yes

Where's the idea from?

I've been wanting to learn C++ for a while now. Recently, I took "The C++ Programming Language" by Bjarne Stroustrup home from the hackerspace... A great book, but a tidbit too in-depth for me to start off with. I'll pick this one up when I'm a little less novice.

For that reason, I ordered "Accelerated C++ (Practical programming by Example)" by Andrew Koenig & Barara E.Moo (C++ In Depth Series - Bjarne Stroustrup).

Here's a quote from the intro:

Our approach works—for beginners and experienced programmers

We used to teach a week-long intensive C++ course every summer at Stanford University. We originally adopted a traditional approach to that course: Assuming that the students already knew C, we started by showing them how to define classes, and then moved systematically through the rest of the language. We found that our students would be confused and frustrated for about two days—until they had learned enough that they could start writing useful programs. Once they got to that point, they learned quickly. When we got our hands on a C++ implementation that supported enough of what was then the brand-new standard library, we overhauled the course. The new course used the library right from the beginning, concentrated on writing useful programs, and went into details only after the students had learned enough to use those details productively. The results were dramatic: After one day in the classroom, our students were able to write programs that had taken them most of the week in the old course. Moreover, their frustration vanished.

If there's enough interest, I'd like to team up to tackle this book. It's 17 chapters... here's my idea: For 9 weeks, we meet in HSBXL (let's say on Wednesday evenings 20.30) and tackle 2 chapters: do the exercises and figure out some challenges in the line of the book together.

Getting the book

I bought it at Amazon, and had it 4 days after I ordered it. Here's the book

The program

Meetings start off at 20:30 on these dates:

• Nov. 24, 2010
  • Chapter 0: Getting started
  • Chapter 1: Working with strings
• Dec. 1, 2010
  • Chapter 2: Looping and counting
  • Chapter 3: Working with batches of data
• Dec. 8, 2010
  • Chapter 4: Organizing programs and data
• Dec. 15, 2010
  • Chapter 5: Using sequential containers and analyzing strings
• Dec. 22, 2010
  • Chapter 6: Using library algorithms
• Jan. 5, 2011
  • Chapter 7: Using Associative containers
• Jan 12, 2011
  • Chapter 8: Writing generic functions
• Jan. 19, 2011
  • Chapter 9: Defining new types
• Jan. 26, 2011
  • Chapter 10: Managing memory and low-level data structures
• Feb. 2, 2011
  • Chapter 11: Defining abstract data types
• Feb. 9, 2011
  • Chapter 12: Making class objects act like values
• Feb. 16, 2011
  • Chapter 13: Using inheritance and dynamic binding
• Feb. 23, 2011
  • Chapter 14: Managing memory (almost) automatically
• March. 2, 2011
  • Chapter 15: Revisiting character pictures
• March. 9, 2011
  • Chapter 16: Where do we go from here?