i want to stop being a beginner

Yeah so I've taken a few c++ classes at college, up to data structures. But just because I know how to write a bs-tree doesn't mean im an EXPERT PROGRAMMER just yet. The most complicated program I've written so far is one that solves the Towers of Hanoi by brute force. I still consider myself a beginner-level programmer.

Does anyone have any tips on how to improve my skill? Like a large one-man project that will teach me how to write & manage larger programs? Whenever I got the book store and look at the programming sections everything is either TEACH YOURSELF JAVA IN 24 HOURS or like START C++ FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED. Everything is aimed at beginners but I want to move on.

protips?

>>1
What do you do for a living? I work in IT as a PC technician and find that the best way to improve is to write small applications for things I do repeatedly. Unfortunately they're mostly in HTML with sprinkles of Javascript, or pure Java, or small and mostly edited VBS from the web.

Till I saw your MYSQL comment, I would have suggested (for C++ improvement) at most to look at other open source code, like that of a NES emulator, picking the smallest one for simplicity. Specially if it's built by a single person.

The issue becomes "switch from DOS C++ into real world C++ with QT, MFC or whatever, so that you can get hired?" That is hard to answer. I myself am trying to learn the win32 API, but it really sucks. That would be too advanced. Instead, try to work on customizing small online C++ utilities with things you need. You'll see that most stuff has dependencies on MFC or VCL. You'll then go back to C++ and just try and work with the standard template library, which IS worth your while (learn the basic syntax and using Vectors and Lists... coders don't even use their sorting and hashing much in their code)

More importantly, try and revisit C++ assignments or help people a bit, by implementing their homework on your own after you give them ideas. In PHP you can play with by installing a MYSQL server and making a little database of work issues you're working on, or your own bookshelf inventory. The bookshelf inventory is a good idea for C++ code too, but you just have to teach yourself strings --nightmare... YOU MUST LEARN the <cstring> stuff and how to stay away from buggy char* code.

Sorry not to be too helpful, because you'll have to make the leap into QT or something intermediate that uses C++ and hides the pain from you.

>>34
LOL.