Hi,

I have recently read a book on C++. Enjoyed it and are now looking for some practical experience. As I do not work in the programming field what are the next steps for a beginner like me to get a chance to apply what I have learnt ? for fun.

I have enjoyed creating my own lottery program but feel restricted by my own limited knowledge.

I have found some game development web sites that welcome programmers to contribute with coding but felt this was far to advance for my level.
Can anyone advise me of any other sites more suited for beginners or have any advice on how I should proceed from here.

Thanks,
Garthos

In my opinion the first thing when ones try to learn programming is learning to translated what you like to do in the wright algorithm and than translated in a flow chart.
The last step is the programing language
When I learned it there was a good book how to learned it called ¨Short and Correct programing¨ as I live in the Netherlands it was of course in Dutch
But there must be that kind of books in other language


regards

ron

Where next is up to you.

You might want to try some of the programming projects from the following:
Click here

Alternatively, you might want to look at learning a graphical library (there are lots to choose from. Google search C++ Graphical Library)

Garthos it is certainly easiest to learn programming on the job. If that's not your situation, then try to write something to help with your personal interests as ronlau9 said. For example, if you like music and your CD collection is a mess, then how about writing a catalogue program for your CDs? At first you'll find this type of a project using a database is too overwhelming. The basic approach in programming is to try to break down the system into simple parts. In OO the approach is to think of everything as data and the operations you can do to that data (in our example, a CD might be an object, and you can buy or sell one, etc).

Start simple with projects that interest you and in the meantime download source from successful projects and have a look at how they do things. At first it will be a giant maze and you'll understand nothing. We all began there. After awhile things will start making sense bit by bit. Be patient and curious and always make the effort to do things properly without sloppiness. Many coders write sloppy code with the thought they'll come back when they have more time and clean things up. But more often than not, they never have time. Anything worth doing is worth doing properly, I always say...start with good practices and habits and you'll be well served throughout your coding life.