Hey, I realized that many industries are looking for C++ or Java programmers. But mainly though, C++, do you think it's easy transition from Java to C++ ?? I heard that C++ is much more difficult than Java, where you have to care about Memory location, etc... But I also heard that once we know Java, it's also easy to learn another language. So, what do you guys think? I really need to get this going and learning as many languages as possible!!! But currently, I'm learning ASP.NET with C# (which people say the evolution of C++ lol...)

Do you guys have any recommendation to what book to use? I've seen many book that's purposely made for transitional programmers from Java to C++, but I just don't remember them. However, I personally like O'Reilly's book

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I would recommend accelerated C++ to get you going, its a good book and explains things well, i will talk to you on msn later and give you some extra things

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Transitioning from Java to C++ is a bit difficult for some people. The one thing that I wish C++ had that Java has is the toString() method. Though it isn't very hard to convert from an integer to a std::string in C++, it would be nice to have. Also, while (memory) pointers are useful in C++, they can be a bit of a pain too. Bad pointer arithmetic is easily one of the hardest bugs to find without a debugger to track what is stored in different variables.

To make a long story short, the languages are not really comparable. They make use of different technologies and are completely different languages. You can learn both and after you do, that is when you need to be your own judge.

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rpgfan3233, do you recommended to learn C++ through online tutorial or books? Sometimes it's really useful to just use online tutorial, but it's a little bit confusing to be since it's all broken apart. It's good though when I got the project in mind

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Either one works since the language isn't hard to learn. It is learning the features of the language as well as how to use them to your advantage that is difficult.

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"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off."
-- Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of what is now known as C++
For more quotes by Bjarne Stroustrup, check out http://www.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#really-say-that.

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what do you mean with the features of the language?

Edit: I'm also wondering, what's the advantages of C++ than other languages? I haven't things in mind that there's an application that can be created with C++ and not with Java. But for some reason, these companies are looking to those who also understand C++ (or C#) but I think C++ is the core of everything...

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When I say features, I'm referring to the Standard Template Library mainly. It is made up of several headers, but it is quite useful. Then there is the strings library, which isn't exactly a part of the STL, but it does serve the same kind of needs: shorter development time and efficiency. The facilities that both provide are wonderful and convenient.

Also, the main advantage of C++ is a balance between a fairly rapid development process and run time. With Java, for example, the Java Virtual Machine takes up memory itself. Then you have the program that you created taking up memory as well, not to mention the processor work for them both. Java is a wonderful language, but those few things can take time that could have been used when compiled to native code rather than Java bytecode. C# as well as other .NET languages, need the .NET framework to even run. As a result, hidden inside your compiled executable is code that looks for the .NET framework before starting the actual program. Not a bad thing, right? Well, consider the fact that because it needs the .NET framework, the program's function calls are really just the top layer of the program. The layer underneath is the .NET framework. In order for them to work together, they have to be able to communicate. Then the .NET framework has to talk to the operating system. That's 3 layers, just like Java (program => JVM => OS). C++ (and C) only require 2 layers - program => OS. I'm simplifying things a bit, of course, as there are many other layers like shared/dynamic libraries (.dll in Windows, .so in *nix environments) unless you compile with only static libraries (.lib for Visual Studio, .a for archived libraries - *nix environments, used with gcc on Windows), in which case the necessary code is just stored in your executable itself, if I recall correctly.

C# is rather popular for some reason, though I'm not sure why. Personally, I think it takes a LOT from Java and then rips it to shreds while adding C and C++ things. However, that's just my opinion. Anyway, that's off-topic, so I don't think it should be discussed here.

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"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off."
-- Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of what is now known as C++
For more quotes by Bjarne Stroustrup, check out http://www.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#really-say-that.

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Thanx a lot rpgfan3233
That was really thorough explanation. So .NET Framework is just actually the same thing as Java Virtual Machine (I never knew this lol..) Anyways, so current programming langauges that writes directly to the operating system is either C or C++ right?

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Not so much writing to the operating system directly as communicating with the operating system directly. Currently, C, C++, some forms of BASIC, Objective-C, D, and Assembly are some that come to mind.

As far as the .NET Framework being the same as the JVM, the idea is similar. That's all though.

The idea of a JVM is to provide a protection from harming your computer when you perform "unsafe" operations.
The idea of the .NET Framework is to provide a common API for all of the .NET languages. However, because converting from the .NET Framework code to the actual code already existing as a part of the OS is a nearly insane thought, a bit of extra code is inserted into your compiled application to search for the appropriate version of the .NET Framework. This way, it eliminates the need for a ".NET Virtual Machine", and you can know that your application doesn't lose much time.

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"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off."
-- Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of what is now known as C++
For more quotes by Bjarne Stroustrup, check out http://www.research.att.com/~bs/bs_faq.html#really-say-that.

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I also read it somewhere that Visual Basic is also some form of BASIC languages, is that true? Then is Visual Basic and C++ the same in term of Run time speed, and the layer that you're talking about?

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