If you have this book "Beginning C++ through game programming" please advise

Question

I have been going through this book for weeks. In each chapter it gives you a game program at the end and then some "exercises" typically the exercises are relatively easy. The game it gets to are VERY difficult for me to understand. Particularly in chapter 6 "Tic-Tac-Toe." After reading chapter 6 I feel so discouraged as to give up on learning programming. My question is this. I understand all of the individual concepts up to this point but the implementation in the tic-tac-toe program is overwhelming to me. Should I at this point really be able to program this game? I know without a doubt that based on the knowledge I have learned so far in this book I could in no shape or form write this program on my own? If I am capable of doing the exercises at the end of the chapter is that what is to be expected of me or if I cant comprehend this tic-tac-toe program am I so far lost that its pointless

Answer 1

not really the answer I'm looking for

Answer 2

Don't be discouraged if you don't understand it.
I took a quick look at the book and I see that it's pretty fast paced, I wouldn't recommend it to a complete beginner.
You should be happy that you got as far as you did.

That said, games are complicated to start with, so it throws alot in your face. When you're a complete beginner you probably will not understand anything and will think programming is too hard or something, another reason why I don't recommend it.

What you should do it take whatever it is talking about, references for example and just experiment with it in very short programs and try to change stuff to see when it breaks, that's how you learn.
If you don't understand why it's doing what it does you can just google it or ask it in here and you're 1 step further.

I for example had alot of trouble with references and pointers when I started out, but by using it 1000s of times and reading about them I slowly got used to it and now I don't have any problem with them.

While learning, whenever a book asked me to do something I would just stare at my screen for way too long, not knowing what to type. At that point you ask yourself what is it that you causes you to stare at the screen and you try to read a few pages back.

You probably won't be able to make programs like Tic-Tac-Toe without having to look up stuff every 10 seconds, but that's ok, you'll earn experience.

At one point in the future you can say you pushed through and are able to build it without any lookup and you'll be proud of yourself ^^

Answer 3

A little bird told me that courses through https://www.coursera.org/ are far more better than studying books. Each course consists of lots of materials such as references, quizzes and videos. You even get your own certificate after completing a course.