Is C++ good place to start?

[pretentious]

since discovering this community i've left and returned several times. You could probably just call it imaturity but i think there's more to it than just being a hacker, i wanted to get a job in the industry. After having a go at C, at the time I didn't really see any real world applications of the stuff that i was learning. Manipulation of char arrays and stuff isn't going to get me any brownie points on a resume and even now i can't off the top of my head, think of a good reason not to use a String class. Right now, i'm only teaching myself ASM because i want to learn to exploit buffer overflows and reverse engineer programs, both of which i'm pretty sure, require some understanding of ASM. I think if you introduce a newbie to something high level and abstract, they will be prepared to memorise a few public static void and namespace's if they see this taking them somewhere. Of course, they will learn what all of that means in good time. going too low just seems like throwing them in the deep end when they havn't learned to swim
this actually reminds me of something i read in a ASM wikibook

Code: Select all

Do I Need to Know Assembly?
You don't need to know assembly for most computer tasks, but it certainly is nice.
Learning assembly is not about learning a new programming language. If you are going
to start a new programming project (unless that project is a bootloader or a device driver
or a kernel), then you will probably want to avoid assembly like the plague.

[tgoe]

I would prefer to teach somebody/learn strings, ints, chars, pointers, and arrays before I learn about bits, bytes, nibbles, words, and double words.

Unpossible

in-order to understand some of the concepts, it requires you to look past the abstraction

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

A string class is one of those fundamental abstractions. Idiomatic programming is the exact thing a complete beginner shouldn't be doing, no matter how easy high-level languages make it.

[centip3de]

Unpossible

Wut?

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

A string class is one of those fundamental abstractions. Idiomatic programming is the exact thing a complete beginner shouldn't be doing, no matter how easy high-level languages make it.

If you were going to make somebody learn to drive, would you first force them to assemble the car by themselves? Granted, they would have such a higher knowledge about the car than anyone else in their drivers ed class, the learning curve would also be so huge that it would take them years longer, thus being more impractical.

[tgoe]

Impractical for being a driver (programmer). To me, OP clearly wants to be an automotive engineer with a driver's license (hacker). Maybe I'm not making personal distinctions clear: Hacker > Programmer > User (passenger).

[centip3de]

Hacker > Programmer > User (passenger).

Correct, but you don't go from zero to hacker in 10 seconds. Rather, you first learn how to program, THEN you learn how to exploit those programs.

[Monica]

Hacker > Programmer > User (passenger).

Correct, but you don't go from zero to hacker in 10 seconds. Rather, you first learn how to program, THEN you learn how to exploit those programs.

Incorrect. Hacking requires magic.

[LoGiCaL__]

This thread has been side tracked from the OP's question. Since there seems to be so many opinions my advice is to start there see if you like it and if not then move to something a little be more to your liking.