Need some advice

[dydx13]

Hello there,

Basically, what I want to do is to develop a GUI-based file sharing program for myself. This is strictly for educational purposes only. Do you know of any good books out there that can point me in
the right direction?

I am a novice/intermediate C++ programmer. I took a c++ programming class at a local community college a few years ago and I'm now trying to relearn the language. I've never made a large-scale
computer program before, but once I relearn c++ I would like to make one.

What are the tricks to making a large-scale computer program? The programs that I have made were only, at most, 100 lines long. They consisted of the main function and other functions that I
developed.

Recently, I was looking at an open-source program called DC++. As I was looking at the source code, I was just overwhelmed. Alot of the code, I did not recognize, or understand. On the other hand I
DID understand the core concepts

For example, one thing I did not recognize was this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ifndef _DEBUG

FARPROC WINAPI FailHook(unsigned /* dliNotify */, PDelayLoadInfo /* pdli */) {
MessageBox(WinUtil::mainWnd, _T("DC++ just encountered an unhandled exception and will terminate. Please do not report this as a bug, as DC++ was unable to collect the information needed for a
useful bug report (Your Operating System doesn't support the functionality needed, probably because it's too old)."), _T("DC++ Has Crashed"), MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);
exit(-1);
}

#endif
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The #ifndef really confused me.

Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you could give me some tips on programming in C++. Also, I would like to buy a book on how to develop large-scale, GUI-based programs.

Sorry for the long post, and I thank you for your time,

Nathan D. Brown
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Computer Science Dept.

 

[Mark P]

Hello there,

Basically, what I want to do is to develop a GUI-based file sharing program for myself. This is strictly for educational purposes only. Do you know of any good books out there that can point me in
the right direction?

To do that you'll need something beyond standard C++ which,
unfortunately, makes it outside the scope of this group. You could
start by asking on comp.programming for suggested tools to do such a
thing. Obviously Qt and Windows programming come to mind, but again,
these are outside the scope of this group.

I am a novice/intermediate C++ programmer. I took a c++ programming class at a local community college a few years ago and I'm now trying to relearn the language. I've never made a large-scale
computer program before, but once I relearn c++ I would like to make one.

What are the tricks to making a large-scale computer program? The programs that I have made were only, at most, 100 lines long. They consisted of the main function and other functions that I
developed.

There are no tricks. It takes careful design and a lot of hard work.
Again, comp.programming might be a good place for references on this
subject.

Recently, I was looking at an open-source program called DC++. As I was looking at the source code, I was just overwhelmed. Alot of the code, I did not recognize, or understand. On the other hand I
DID understand the core concepts

For example, one thing I did not recognize was this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ifndef _DEBUG

FARPROC WINAPI FailHook(unsigned /* dliNotify */, PDelayLoadInfo /* pdli */) {
MessageBox(WinUtil::mainWnd, _T("DC++ just encountered an unhandled exception and will terminate. Please do not report this as a bug, as DC++ was unable to collect the information needed for a
useful bug report (Your Operating System doesn't support the functionality needed, probably because it's too old)."), _T("DC++ Has Crashed"), MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);
exit(-1);
}

#endif

Well, lucky for you, that actually *is* standard C++. That's a
preprocessor statement and it allows for the code enclosed between the
#ifndef and the #endif to be optionally compiled. In particular, if the
preprocessor value _DEBUG is not defined (ifndef = if not defined) then
the enclosed code is seen by the compiler, otherwise the compiler never
sees that code at all. As for the code between the preprocessor
statements, that's some sort of Windows specific code which makes it,
you guessed it, off topic. (There are windows programming newsgroup out
there.)

Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you could give me some tips on programming in C++. Also, I would like to buy a book on how to develop large-scale, GUI-based programs.

That's a pretty tall order. I'd suggest you start small, get more
familiar with C++ and experiment with the basics of whatever packages
you use for all the non-standard code (graphics, networking, etc.), then
try to develop from there.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?q?Erik_Wikstr=F6m?=]

Hello there,

Basically, what I want to do is to develop a GUI-based file sharing program for myself. This is strictly for educational purposes only. Do you know of any good books out there that can point me in
the right direction?

I am a novice/intermediate C++ programmer. I took a c++ programming class at a local community college a few years ago and I'm now trying to relearn the language. I've never made a large-scale
computer program before, but once I relearn c++ I would like to make one.

You basically want to do two things:
1. Re-learn C++
2. Learn how to develop larger pieces of software

For the first there are a number of good books available, and you can
come here and ask questions when you're stuck. Two books often
recommended are Accellerated C++ by Andrew Koenig and Barbara E. Moo
and The C++ Language by Bjarne Stroustrup.

For the second you probably want to learn OO design and architecture,
I'm quite sure that you can find good books on this subject too, but I
have none to recommend. Just like learning C++ this is a subject best
learned by doing so I would suggest that you find yourself a good book
or two and start reading and that you start small, do a couple of
small projects and gradually increase size and complexity. There are
newsgroups dedicated to these kinds of things, in which you'll get
more and better advice.