Where to go Next...C++ Noob

[MDiak47]

I have been informally studying programming with C++ for roughly 8 months now. I understand the majority of the language, but I am becoming extremely bored with building trivial programs and running them in console. I am quickly losing interest and would like to know where to move next...I have looked at graphics programming and it looks far beyond my knowledge. Is there a book that can bridge the move between console and graphics? Or should I keep working at console until my understand grows? After all, all I want is a deep understanding of programming and for some reason using console isn't satisfying that thirst. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

I would suggest "The C++ Programming Language" from the creator himself. If you are familiar with the Object Oriented Principles and the syntax of C++, this book would take you to the next level. It seems a bit complex at first but don't give up. You will never regret the time spent on this book

[daviddoria]

You should definitely check out Qt.

I have an introduction here:
http://rpi.edu/~doriad/Talks/Qt_Introduction.pptx

and a bunch of examples here:
http://programmingexamples.net/index.php?title=Qt

It will keep you pretty occupied!

David

[mike_2000_17]

You can get something like Qt Creator for doing GUI stuff and play around with tutorials (like David mentioned). I find that going through tutorial examples is a good way to do something more than trivial console applications without requiring deep understanding yet (if you don't understand, you just reproduce the tutorial examples and then play around with the code). You can start by doing things like a calculator with a GUI. Designing GUIs and putting functionality to it rapidly makes you feel like you are making "real" applications.

For doing 2D/3D graphics programming, I could recommend that you just get Ogre3D. Work through their tutorials. The learning curve if very fast and it looks cool quickly.

With these (or other similar tools), you will be able to make the connection between code you would normally program for console apps, and how to display them in a end-user style GUI or graphics application.

I think the best thing to do at your stage is to come up with a larger project (like a 2D/3D game or some user application) that has some level of complexity in the software engineering sense. You might get inspiration as you work through some tutorials from either your GUI tool or graphics engine of choice. Once you have a bigger project to do, it is much more interesting to try and work it out (as opposed to simple textbook examples) because you have a goal to reach and much to learn to get there (as opposed to just learning for sake of learning).