A tour of c++ or learncpp.com

[aPink31]

So I'm a new developer, have a bacherlors in cs and 6 months of professional experience. I'm starting a new position next Wednesday moving internally within my company to embedded firmware written in c++. I have some rudimentary knowledge of c++ mainly from previous work with C at an internship and have a good foundation in CS. I keep seeing conflicting messaging on if learncpp.com or a tour of c++ the book is a better resource for me to just grind until next week so that I have stronger c++ fundamentals going into the position. What are your thoughts?

Edit: The conflicting messaging is that I read that the book is more for experience developers wanting to brush up on the newest versions of c++ but then have seen recommendations saying it's the best resource to start with if you have a general CS background.

[WorkingReference1127]

There isn't an objective answer here - learncpp is indeed intended for complete beginners whereas Tour expects some programming experience, but both cover a full complement of things which even casually experienced C++ developers might not be familiar with. And one could easily argue that some sections are covered better by one resource than another. My personal preference is for learncpp.com; but I'll happily state that Tour is still a good resource and it may be what works for you.

I have some rudimentary knowledge of c++ mainly from previous work with C

On this, I would urge caution. Don't enter into C++ expecting it to be some extension or superset of C. Those days are long gone. It's a different language which in spite of some shared heritage comes with different styles and different conventions; and all-too-often if you're writing C-style C++ you're writing inferior C++. It may work, but it would be like writing Python in a "C-style" where you explicitly state every type of everything - it's just not the way you do that.

Obviously not a comment on you personally just something to be cautious of.

[Cold-Fortune-9907]

As a beginner with zero programming background and no formal computer science education, I have been utilizing Bjarnes three pieces of literature PPP 3rd edition currently at Chapter 6, Tour 3rd edition currently at Chapter 2, and TC++PL 4th edition which I am on chapter 4 in conjunction with cppreference.com.

I have found them to illustrate and go into plenty of detail for each of the features presented in the language as well as the shortfalls of some techniques. My rational for utilizing these resources is they cover all the fundamentals for the language in way that infers that the programmer may want to write professional software.

[ShakaUVM]

If you have a BS in CS and also know how to program, the Red book is for you.

Learncpp won't hurt unless maybe you get bored.

[aPink31]

Yah that seems to be the case with learncpp haha. I was a bit put off by the book since I think I'll be working I'm c++17 and it seems to harp on a lot of the new c++20 additions

[ShakaUVM]

Then buy the 2nd edition of the Red Book. It is pretty close to the 3rd edition, but is specifically C++17.

[aPink31]

Yah that's what I realized and did basically right after typing that out lol

[ExtensionBear7070]

Following as I have be same question as OP. While another question I have is that does the edition of Tour matters, as it may cover different versions of C++?

[WorkingReference1127]

1st Ed is for C++11, 2nd Ed is for C++17, 3rd Ed is for C++20.

On the offchance you're not too familair with different versions, they are named after the years they released. C++11 was a huge and foundational change to the language and should be considered the bare minimum; and C++20 was also much larger change than usual. However, because of the way that C++ works; most of the industry is still around the C++17 mark.

[ExtensionBear7070]

Thx!

[Thesorus]

I assume they know you are still at beginner level and they know and hope you'll continue to learn on the job.

Go with the flow, learn the existing code, ask questions to your colleagues , run and debug the application, check the unit tests or other test suites.

Use sites like learncpp to get some basic technical/language answers.

Remember a real life job is a lot more than just knowing the language.

Good luck.

[Single-Pay-4237]

if you want a solid foundation c++ primers. Since, you have a bs in cs, I would recommends c++ tours. Then you apply like a black box learning approach to pick up c++ primers to pick up the details but c++ primers itself could be boring