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?

>>39
Speaking of which, here's a neat way of adding ints to strings and strings to strings, though you better know in advance and allocate enough char array size. With char strings, you waste useful room and time calculating and recreating strings. If you then create or use a class, you still must convert to char arrays or the native C function calls won't accept your code.


#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int i = 8;
  char buffer[300] = {0};
  sprintf(buffer, "%s, %d", "String placed in percent s, 'i' placed in percent d", i);
  printf("%s", buffer);
}