Learning C++: Timeframe and Complexity Insights

Learning C++ can take weeks for experienced programmers, but months or years for beginners to master its complexities.

### Learning C++: A Journey of Time and Understanding
* ⏳ The time it takes to learn C++ varies greatly depending on your **existing programming knowledge** and what you **aim to achieve**.
* 📚 For experienced programmers, reading "The C++ Tour" can provide a **solid foundation in just a weekend**, but deeper understanding requires **experimentation and learning libraries over days or weeks**.
* 🕰 ️ Conversely, for beginners unfamiliar with programming concepts like **linked lists or hashtables**, the journey could **extend to months or even years** to reach a professional level.
* 🎻 The analogy of learning an instrument highlights that while **basic skills may come quickly**, mastery requires **years of practice and dedication**.
* 🔍 Understanding someone else's complex C++ code, especially if they've been coding for years, can lead to **significant challenges**, as seen in the experience of **debugging intricate logging classes**.
* 🧩 Mastery of C++ involves grappling with its many features, including **macros and templates**, which can create **confusion and complexity**.
* 🛠 Knowing a programming language goes beyond syntax; it encompasses **understanding its intended use** and **effectively applying its features**, which can take **considerable time to grasp**.
* 🌐 The diversity of approaches in languages like C++, JavaScript, and Rust can lead to confusion, while simpler languages like Go offer a **more straightforward path**, emphasizing the **beauty of simplicity**.

the founder of C++ on how long it takes to learn a language. The man who created potentially the second hardest modern - I mean the word 'modern' is loose here - but uh, you used language okay, because I understand there's like Malbolge and

BrainFuck which are arguably much, much harder, but this is not it. Okay, Rust being the hardest language then comes this: how long, how long does it take to learn C++? Depends what you want to do and what you already know. Um, if you are already a programmer

in quite a few languages, okay, um my recommendation is to read The C++ Tour, Tour of C++, great book by the way. I read it, very, very fantastic. I actually liked it. It uh, the, the description of how elegant the standard is and how it's

definition of iterators and everything was, it was seems so amazing, and then when you use iterators they're really awful in the standard. It's so, so much just typing. Just why do I got to type so much? But I love the idea of it, okay. I

love the fact that you can delete from one, it from a starting point to an ending point. It's beautiful. There's a lot of really great things in it. In addition, you can do it in the weekend, and now you have the fundamentals, and you have to do some experimentation and

probably dig deeper into the areas you're interested in. If you want to do anything, you have to pick up some libraries and learn them, but we're talking days or weeks. But that assumes you're a programmer. If I have to explain to you what a linked list is or what a

vector is or what a hashtable is, uh, then it takes much longer. So if you start from the beginning to reach the professional level, we're talking months and years. Um, and and and one question sometimes asked is how long does it take to learn to play a violin?

Well, if nobody's listening, it's easy. If only your mother has to appreciate it, uh, maybe it'll do fine. Um, but otherwise, it'll take years. Now if you're already a violinist and you want to play a viola, you can probably do it in a couple of weeks.

Depends what you are, uh, what your background is, what you already know, and then how good do you want to be at it. If if you're if you're thinking about the Lincoln Center, you better spend years. And I feel like learning C++ with prior

knowledge, he's probably right. It probably just takes a couple of weeks, a weekend, and all that. But learning to read someone else's C++ in which they've been writing for like a decade, it's going to take a long, long time. Okay, I remember being okay at C++

meaning that I can mostly do all the things in it, and I was I was pretty okay. This is when I was doing a lot of active development in it. Just a couple years back, I was doing a whole bunch and I I felt pretty happy about it. And then I go

to look at this logging class that was set up, and I spent three days debugging through the logging class. GDB print F, I even got C Lion out to try to help me on this thing. Never understood it. Literally spent about 40 hours looking

at code and never figured out how it works. Could I, couldn't I, couldn't I just... I don't know what voodoo magic I was missing, but this, this, this dance between macros and then code, then that the code then enacts more macros underneath like

that, that dance is impossible. When you get macros, templates, and code together, it's going to take you a long time, long, long time. The equivalent for, uh, a programming language, if you want to be the ace programmer, uh, building the next generation infrastructure, or the next, uh

absolutely great, um, oh, there's a lot of inheritance, too. Application, you better spend some years learning, not just the programming language, but your basic computer science and your application areas. I think one thing that he doesn't quite talk a lot about in this, I know

it's a very really short video, but some, something that he doesn't address a lot of is that it's one thing to know the language and what does it mean to know the language? Like, you can use what X percentage of its features? 70 percent of the features, 80% of the features

without like, you can kind of recall them and basically use them, but what does it mean to actually know a language? There's also kind of like a Zeitgeist or an intended usage of a language, and that intended usage takes a while to become like, to really get. Just because you

understand how to write the language does not mean you actually know the language at all. Just because I could write, say, lines of JavaScript, doesn't mean I am a JavaScript programmer. Even if you can write entire applications in JavaScript, you may not actually know how to use it correctly.

and it's also really hard to know how to use a language correctly, that you can do it in many different ways. And so C++, JavaScript, and Rust all suffer from this exact same problem, which is that there's like tons of different ways to solve the

exact same problem. And I find that to be a really difficult language to truly understand because as time goes forward, you could go into someone else's project as an expert and be completely just befuddled by it by how they chose to program it. It's massively different than how you

would do it and it becomes just like, it can become a very confusing thing. So many ways to do stuff, heavy abstraction, easy to do that. And JavaScript has the same thing. The only difference is JavaScript abstractions are often runtime abstractions as opposed to compile-time

and so it's very difficult. That's one reason why I've been really just appreciating this Go journey is that the Go journey, there's just really kind of like two ways you can do it, and it's beautiful. The name is, I'm in my

simplicity, Grug brain Renaissance, and I've been loving it.

Creator Of C++ On How Long To Learn A Language | Prime Reacts

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Time to learn C++: Depends on prior programming experience

For experienced programmers, a weekend or a few weeks might suffice to grasp the fundamentals using resources like "The C++ Tour".

Beginners require significantly more time, potentially months or years, to reach a professional level.

The learning curve is compared to learning a musical instrument; prior knowledge significantly reduces the learning time.

Understanding existing C++ code, especially complex projects, can take a considerable amount of time.

Challenges in understanding complex C++ code

Even experienced programmers can struggle with debugging complex C++ codebases, spending significant time on a single class.

The interaction between macros, templates, and code can make understanding the code logic incredibly challenging.

Mastering C++ requires years of learning, not just the language itself but also computer science fundamentals and application domains.

Depth of understanding vs. superficial knowledge of a programming language

Knowing a language involves understanding a significant percentage of its features and intended usage.

Simply writing code doesn't equate to mastering a language; understanding its intended use and best practices is crucial.

Many languages allow for multiple solutions to the same problem, making it difficult to judge correct usage.

Challenges in understanding different coding styles in C++

The multitude of ways to solve problems in C++ leads to vastly different coding styles, causing confusion when working on unfamiliar projects.

Heavy abstraction in C++ can further complicate understanding diverse coding approaches.

This contrasts with languages like Go, which have a more limited number of approaches, simplifying comprehension.