   A dog chasing it's tail
  Somedays I feel like a dog chasing it''s tail. For some reason I never seem to get anywhere in programming, and believe me I have put in the time and money, I''m just never where I need to be. Of course the gaps in between programming have taken their toll. I''m not lazy or uninterested, it''s just that P/T college (even in a computer science curriculum forces you to deal with more than just c++), f/t work, relationships, life etc. etc... I''m starting to wonder whether I''ll ever get the tools into my toolbox. I''ve taken 3 courses in C++ (2 course of assembly 8086, two visual Basic), one an anvanced course in c++ data structures, over the course of three years. Yet I still feel like I''m nowhere. How can this be? All of my C++ courses dealt soley with console apps. The data structures course dealt with templates, pointers, sorts, trees, stacks, dyanmic arrays, linked lists etc.. but all were reinventing the wheel. And all the courses some how missed out on the 1998 C++ standard. None of them even touched the Standard Library. I''ve just recently learned not to use .h extensions, and that was from this site! No one even mentioned std:: namespaces. I just picked up a book in the Jesse Liberty series C++ standar Library from scratch. I have hardly any knowledge of MFC, so I purchased a sams book on visual c++. I''ve learned basic windows programming fro TOTWPG (Lammothe) and have done some basic 2-d apps with DirectX7, haven''t bothered with 3D, but it seems like now I need to in order to take advantage of directx8. also, someone directed me to SDL. I own a lot of other books on game programming that I haven''t even got to, Although I''m currently working with Game programming "All in one". I just feel like I''m always 100 steps behind. I know that this is more of a rant than a question but I just had to get it off my chest. I''m just tired of feeling like a wannabe programmer. (I still can''t write windows\directX apps without copying most of someone elses code. Argghhhh!). I''ve downloaded Genesis3d, but it just seems like learning someone elses code. I just don''t know what direction to go anymore. Does anyone else feel this way?  Where did I go wrong?????  
  I would come up with what felt like a good idea, then showed it to someone before it was finished or even barely started, then for some reason didn't care about it anymore, then when I was with a group of people and heard them talking about things, my mind would wander and I might or might not think about starting up the project again, etc. etc. etc.Yep, been there.It's easy to dream, but very hard to produce.Best advice I think I can give is to give yourself time and be patient, but devoted.You might want to just pick a project (like Tetris or something simple), and just force yourself through to completion, planning and learning what you need as you go.[edited by - Waverider on August 20, 2002 3:30:42 PM];  I don''t think you did go wrong.You don''t know all of the individual details.  So what?  Nobody does.  That''s what reference books are for.  If you come out of college knowing all sorts of arcane tidbits about MFC and DirectX then it means you don''t really have a Computer Science degree; you have a technical one.  The intimate details of the language and the APIs will come with experience.Don''t get me wrong though; what you''re doing is a good thing.  Always continue to try to learn.  If you feel like you''re not getting anywhere, begin a small programming project as a hobby.  The problems it will present to you will be inspirations to find new solutions, and the project will be a good place to apply technical knowledge you pick up along the way.So continue to learn.  But don''t beat up on yourself because you don''t know everything.  ;  I have also taken a similar curriculum, except without the VB and my assembly courses were more theory (we worked with MIPS instead of Intel architectures), but you seemed to have learned a lot more than I have in terms of specific APIs and such.You are on your way to doing what you want, and I would love to be in your position. I hope to be at that point sometime this year (my fourth at university) and to have a few games under my belt that aren''t DOS based.Good luck, and don''t be so frustrated! Just keep learning!  ;  I know exactly how you feel. I''ve experienced the same thing before (I think I''m still experiencing it ), and then I realized that there''s no way I master all the aspects without applying them. So, I think the best way, like others said, is to focus on one small project. Apply your knowledge on that project and see which part that still needs improvement. From there you will gain more experience and be able to fill in the gaps and missing links. I don''t think you should worry about not being able to write a code without copying, as long as you only copy the syntax, and not the logic (this gotta be original). I think it''s a waste of brain cells to memorize all the Classes, Member Functions and their parameters (like 8-14 parameters for some functions? No way ). The more important thing is to understand the code, why it''s written in certain way etc. And two more things are patience (something not many people have, I don''t have it much either ) and hard work (you''ve done this part)good luck...  ;quote:The intimate details of the language and the APIs will come with experience.  There''s your answer. Books, classes, worthless unless you are actually doing things with them. Program, keep programming.You don''t learn tricks and techniques from someone else. They come from you, working out your own problems. Even if in a class you went over, in detail, every little bit of a problem and a trick to solving it, it wouldn''t matter until you actually took the problem in your own hands and solved it.As for writing windows\directx apps, that''s a matter of knowledge vs widsom. A knowlegdable person may have memorized every single line of it, but a wise person knows what it does and where he can find a copy to paste in. Because when it comes down to actually producing something, the wise person just did the same job with hardly any work in hardly any time at all.So that''s where you went wrong, you relied on the more typical methods of "learning", aka "cramming" and not spent enough time actually doing what you are learning about.    ------------The Audacious Engine - After briefly disappearing (aka being deleted), Audacious is being rebuilt. Although it''s not ready yet, so don''t you dare go there. I mean it.MSN: nmaster42@hotmail.com, AIM: LockePick42, ICQ: 74128155"It''s all part of the conspiracy of conspirators conspiring to conspire their own conspiracies..."  ;  Yu didn''t go wrong! It is very common! I know exactly wut yu mean! I mean, I just like wake up one day and say tu myself "god-dam! I haven''t gotten nowhere!". and.. shit.Um, just be patent and learn lots, and have an open mind and shit. Basicly wut the other guys sed...  ;  Thanks for the replies and the support. It''s just hard to see the upside sometimes. The fact is I have done alot in my life but, most of it seems like start & stops. I graduated HS in 93 with an interest in computers and electronics. So I joined the Air Force and studdied electronics and ground aerospace radar and completed an A.A.S. degree. After I left the service(4yrs) (and after some forgettable jobs) I enrolled F/T at a community college in a C.S. curriculum. I completed 3 semesters while working 2 P/T jobs. I started with college algebra trig and worked up to CalcII, and completed other coursework such as English,Social Sciences and other courses I already mentioned. I finnaly landed a full-time position as a Network Systems Tech for a school district, which is where I am still working today (I am 27 now, making approx 35k). I am now trying to complete my B.A.S. Computer Science Part-time. The fact is, even though I have come this far I don''t know if I have much to offer an employer in a programming position, never mind a game programming position. I just keep feeling C++ evades me at every leap. (btw, keeping up with Network Sytems seems to be evading me as well. Working in a public school system doesn''t give you much access to new technology, plus the fact that I am responsible for every aspect of computers from unboxing to keeping the network running. [My boss is the actual System Adiminstrator and makes approx. 85k]. I guess I feel like a know a little about everything and everything about nothing.    ;quote:Original post by zenassem  And all the courses some how missed out on the 1998 C++ standard. None of them even touched the Standard Library. I''ve just recently learned not to use .h extensions, and that was from this site! No one even mentioned std:: namespaces.  Accelerated C++ would be the book to help here.quote:I just don''t know what direction to go anymore. Does anyone else feel this way?  Everyone feels like this at some point or other. Chill out. Keep doing what you''re doing. Spend however much time seems right on coding and learning new things each day - too much time can be just as bad as not enough time, so use your intuition to tell you how much is right for *you* (don''t be swayed by what other people tell you they do). Often, you''re learning things without realising it, and it''s only on reflection you''ll realise that you really have learned a lot. Most of all, just enjoy what you''re doing, which is what it''s really about.  ;  Thanks SabreMan!I''m never going to give up. I need get back to enjoying what I am able to do rather than focusing on the things I can''t. In some way it helps to know that some of you have felt this way, and I appreciate your honesty. I''m going to polish up on writing solid object oriented code, and learn things as I need to, and climb the learning curve. I hope that I will see all of you at the top. Thanks for giving me a little time to weep, but now it''s time to head foward. I really needed an emotional boost.  