hey Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 I couple of years ago, I was looking for new ways to improve myself. I had done several trainings on C++, C#, software processes, communication, leadership, etc. However, I was not really finding want I felt I needed to improve myself. This is of course, very subjective, the courses were good, I learned things, but I was not really satisfied with the pace nor the result. Then at some point in 2016, I found CppCast. This is a weekly podcast with news on c++ topics. Things started rolling from there, a few months later, I was a guest on cppcast myself. I learned about cppcon a c++ conference (back then held in Bellevue) and convinced my employer to sponsor my travel, entrance fee and stay there. Seattle, is a 10 hour flight from the Netherlands, but well worth it! I was there for 10 days, including a pre-conference course by Stephen Dewhurst. I still feel these 10 days where a turning point for me. I met so many great people, I was in awe that so many teachers were all gathered there, easy to approach and talk to. And also many people, just like me, all searching for more knowledge. After my first conference I was hooked, I learned about how the ISO c++ committee works, I met members of SG14 (the study group focused on low latency), I met Odin Holmes there and learned about embo.io conference. In the months after, I visited more conferences, local talks and retrospectively listened to all episodes of CppCast (well over 100 by then, going on 200 now). I also learned about other c++ resources, communities and peer groups. Looking back, once I found ‘my way’, the community I was looking for was there all along, I just did not know where to look. Below I will list resources that I found helpful, starting with the ‘best starting points’, followed by with what I hope is a useful set of links. Getting started So where to start? What if you what to learn more about c++ and let’s assume for the moment, you want to nerd out for the evening. (so stay at home, not out in the world, talking to people, that will be stage 2 Good starting points: join twitter find #include C++ join the #include discord channel Join twitter you may ask? Isn’t that a little 2015? While it may seem that way at first, a surprising amount of software engineers and teachers are on twitter! I can really recommend it and if you encounter content you don’t appreciate, just mute some accounts to keep yours tweets interesting and on topic. Starting by following @c_plus_plus and me (@janwilmans) of course To get the most out of twitter, it helps to follow several more people, just click on @c_plus_plusand see who’s following that and go from there. The #include C++ community is very welcoming to everybody, seriously, it is their goal to be inclusive in all aspects and you will find knowledgeable people on the discord channel who can give you pointers to new resources or answer questions directly. In there own words: IncludeCpp is a global, inclusive, and diverse community for developers interested in C++. Join our discord. More general resources Kevlin Henney is a great speaker on many topics, check him out, also on youtube. https://www.fluentcpp.com/2018/11/30/function-parameters-3/ http://ericniebler.com/ Tips on tweeting and posting on forums: ask questions! and when you do explain what you already did to explore the problem and why you did not get to the desired answer. This helps to give context and avoids answers like ‘just google it’. use common sense, be nice, if you see a question you can answer, why not chip in and answer it. You may sometimes get it wrong, but that is OK, you will learn from that also! Stage 2, meanwhile in real life… go to a conference! (see list of conferences below) they are the most immersive way to learn a lot in a short amount of time if a conference seems too expensive, remember that volunteers and students often get special discounts and some even offer free access! if you are employed, remind your boss that its is no more expensive compared to a regular course/training and much more immersive and interactive. https://channel9.msdn.com/events/CPP/ the cppcon conference produces over 100 recorded talks ever year! https://www.google.nl/search?q=youtube+cppcon Other things to do read the manual cppreference.com watch the conference video’s! there are many many hour of premium content available online, free of charge read books (really!), I recommend, in order: A Tour of C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup >bol< Effective Modern C++ by Scott Meyers >bol< C++ concurrency in action by Anthony Williams >link< Also worth mentioning, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People not about c++ at all, its about self-management, but it changed my life. Of course there are many other good books, these are just the ones that I read and really stuck with me. join communities https://stackoverflow.com/ is an excellent place for discussion and to ask questions join cpplang on slack Recommended talks CppCon 2015: T. Winters & H. Wright “All Your Tests are Terrible…” ITT 2016 – Kevlin Henney – Seven Ineffective Coding Habits of Many Programmers List of conferences https://cppcon.org/ Dutch people: https://twitter.com/TheDutchCppGrp http://www.040coders.nl This post is a work in progress, I will update it regularly. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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