c++ Win23

[Hawkpath]

Hi, I'm just learning win32 and i wanna know: is it really necessary that i memorize all of the syntax. Is that what professionals do? Or can
I just copy and paste it every time and just know what it does.

Thanks,

Hawkpath

[n1337]

After lots of use you will tend to remember the syntax, even if when starting out you just copy and paste code. I suppose the most important thing is understanding... That is, understanding all of the components and program flow so that you can build on basic templates (provided for example, in VC++), and being able to read and understand documentation (e.g. msdn) so that you can adapt what you need to. And, depending on what your using to code (i.e. an IDE), code completion will probably allow you to get by quite well. If you're using a text editor like VIM on the other hand, it really saves time to not have to look stuff up all the time.

I'm sort of anal in that I typically force myself to memorize mundane syntax before learning new stuff... And unfortunately, it's one of the shortfalls of C/C++. That is, the heavy(ier) syntactical requirements (it's all relative)... I love having to set up all the structures and pointers to structures and stuff just to get a simple working tree structure... /sarcasm.

My prof made a joke in class once when he was explaining code generation that went something like "... and so all you have to do is return a list that will represent a parse tree. In Scheme, just remove the commas from the pseudocode. In C.. write a few hundred lines of code. Then write a few hundred more to support it." :)

Edit: but basically, if you know the basics of things like the message loop and how to register and create a windows class, then copy/paste/adapt the template code is fine..

[Seten]

After lots of use you will tend to remember the syntax, even if when starting out you just copy and paste code. I suppose the most important thing is understanding...

Yes this is how I started. First I just copied some part of code from some website. Then I altered it a bit to my needs. Now it is easy, because if you need something you just copy it from your previous work and update it. In time you get the principles and as a by-product you get it memorized (syntax, functions and algorithms).

A quite good way to start is to make a small goal and fulfill it. Then a greater goal and so on.
Like count factorial of 9 later do string/text convertor and so on...

Anyway I am giving you a "+".

[Hawkpath]

Thanks for the input guys!

[marco93]

is it really necessary that i memorize all of the syntax. Is that what professionals do?

You can ask on old Professional Win32 group
(http://tinyurl.com/yjy3ajr by Google)
(there are the greatest Win32 gurus in the world (with Windows source code...))

[Rajesh R Subram]

Hi, I'm just learning win32 and i wanna know: is it really necessary that i memorize all of the syntax. Is that what professionals do? Or can
I just copy and paste it every time and just know what it does.

Thanks,

Hawkpath

Syntax of what?

As you go on programming and start to gather experience, you will automatically memorise many things. For the rest, the documentation can be used.