Learn to program with Python: http://www.python.org And use PyGame to write Tetris: http://www.pygame.org
You're either on your death bed or blowing hot air. I used to think that as well before I broadened my horizons and learned new languages. Use the right tool for the job.
Baloney. C compilers can't compile C++ code. I don't care how C++ code becomes object code, if you're writing C++ you're writing C++. You *can* mix the two quite easily, but if one learns by using only modern C++ constructs/features, they may struggle with plain old C.
There is an element of validity in halodrake's statement: Bjarne Stroustrup's (the father of C++, Lord Bjarne to his fans ) compiler implementation generated plain C as output. His motivation was quite simple: as a one-man-band he couldn't afford to write out a compiler from end-to-end and couldn't be bothered dealing with cross-platform issues. In practice most compilers write out machine-code more or less directly.
1) There are some things that you can do in plain old C that are not valid C++ code. 2) The first C++ compiler was actually a front-end that generated C code and used the C compiler to finish the job. I doubt that is how modern C++ compilers work, though.
LOL Nope I don't THINK I need to learn "Just Another Dumb Down High Level Scripting" language (TradeMark). I rather spent my time on improving my skills with C/C++ with stl, DirectX, Opengl, and all the other API, then wasting it on a "BRAND NEW" language. I have the right tools allright. If I wanted to create 3d animated models, I uses Anim8or and Milkshape3d. If I wanted make a webpage, I uses a MS html editor. If I wanted some 2d effect, I just use Photoshop. wanted more tools, search it on download.com and I can go on and on and on, and most of these Tools doesn't have a thing to do with programming language
Learning new exotic languages will help you become a better c++ programmer by giving you new ideas and helping you look at problems from different angles and think in different ways.
Learning a "BRAND NEW" language can sometimes help you better understand features of your primary language. For instance learning a pure object oriented language like Smalltalk might give you an insight that you can use when programming in C++. Learning a new language can teach you to approach a problem from a different angle. By all means, spend time improving your skills in the language of your choice, especially if you want to get a project out the door, but don't disregard the advantages of learning new things.
for a start game programming I recomendet: Python and addon for python PyGame those tools however required some programming experience for completely beginers there are: Basic4GL it's a freeware windows yet tool for easy game developing (3D is possible) with suport opengl 1.1 however it's still in develop and mising some features, bur good enough for learning programming and OpenGL SDLBasic for 2D game developin, based on sdl, there are version's for linux and some other platform so it's cross platform. But like Basic4Gl still in heavy develop so you wont be able to do good game in but it's enough for start learning programming
Tetris is an easy game to program, i recall making a QBASIC version only took a hour of planning (designing), few hours to program, and a few hours to debug. I would argue that VB and Delphi are not good IDE's to learn to program in, the reason being that these modern programming environments are often wrapped in development libraries for the specific Operating System. For example, VB comes with all this Windows specific stuff (windows, buttons, etc) so that 90 percent of the work is not learning how to program in general, but to program "Windows". What you want is to get a language free from as much of that as possible, so that you can learn the basics without having to deal with windows, messages, etc. Also, the VB and Microsoft blend of Object Oriented programming is a poor model to learn from (well at least the old stuff...C# got it right, but what did it take them, 10 years?!!!). This may sound like an odd choice, but I would suggest Java then. It is very simple to learn, the Windowing system that its based on actually is represented by a clean object oriented library that would be good to learn from, and its syntactically (sp) close to C++ / C# / C etc, not that syntax will bug you in the end. Hope this helps.
For the purposes of making games.... Applesoft Basic -> Turbo Pascal 3.0-5.0 -> Quick C 2.5 -> Turbo C++ 1.0-3.0 -> Watcom C++ 10 -> Visual C++ 6.0-7.1
Basic > TI Extended Basic > Apple Basic > Pascal > C > 68000 Assembly > C++ > Visual Basic > SQL > C# > BlitzMax
My path Microsoft Basic (on a Dragon 32) -> C64 Basic -> 6809 machine code (not assembly!) -> Amiga Basic -> Pascal -> COBOL -> DBase -> 680x0 assembly -> C++ -> Visual Basic (hey, it's the same as the Dragon used!). I wrote at least one game in each except DBase. The COBOL game was a text adventure. Worst language: Amiga Basic (by Microsoft again). Mark
This is my learning order: Amiga Basic -> Amos Basic -> Borland Pascal with Objects -> C++ (take 1) -> VB/Access Basic -> Intel Assembly -> COBOL -> Java -> C++ (take 2) -> C# -> VB.NET Usage order: Same as above except that I use Java, C++ and C# interchangably!