I hate C++! Changing majors advice?

I hate C++ so much. Last semester I liked it, but this semester "we" have learned about classes, vectors and pointers. "We" is in quotations because I haven't learned dick all. My girlfriend went to the city this weekend and I was going to go with her, but I stayed back so I could read my textbook and maybe get some info in my head. I can't read it, the stuff is so brutal and boring, and it just seems so pointless. I kinda understand the basics of it, like classes have private and public, you can only get private through public, pointers just point to other things, vectors are like arrays but better... just the basics of it. But I can't do the assignment because it feels so hard. I really dislike this course so bad.

Now the worst part of this is that its my major. I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. I am taking a design course and I really like it a lot. I am thinking of switching into that, like graphic design or web design or something like that... I don't really know. I'm good with photoshop and illustrator but have 0 art skills outside the computer. So does anyone have any suggestions what to do?

And another hitch... my parents will probably be very mad at me for switching majors. They will get mad and say that this year at Uni was a waste of money, computer science will pay more, blah blah blah, shit like that. My parents are very anal about good marks and stuff, but they never went to Uni so they don't know what its like. Actually, just now, I got a call from my mom, told her I was trying to study and that I hate this class and she says "Well you're just going to study hard and do really well in it, right?". Ugh.

So how should I tell them I want to switch?

Comments

Well I'm a high school student in grade 10 and we've learned REALbasic programming laguage (I don't how different it is from C++, but anyway) I'm doing pretty good and I've things an impossible cpu for tic-tac-toe (along with the game) and things like pong, but that's just to say that it's doable with enough effort a practice. If you actually practice programming, rather than just studying it, then maybe you'll get the hang of it and pass your course. Once you get you're diploma for the class, then it will pay off when trying to get a computer oriented job later on. Just thing ahead.
 
c++ is the shit... learn it and you'll never regret you've done so... I had this really awesome yet very basic c/c++ book which made things so easy for me. it didn't really go into object oriented programming... so I'm one of those ppl who've had trouble with it later since I wasn't school into it since the beginning. but the book I had made things so easy for me.

today I code c# almost entierly. there's asp.net for my work and xna in my spare time. you still need to understand the part about pointers, memory allocation and similar even if you're coding in c# which doesn't really use the pointers or references in craze like c/c++ does. c++ is faster than c#, but c# is just so much more a breeze to code :)
 
I know what you mean
I got an A+ in my first C++ class and it was easy
now im like wtf with the second class and can barely pass


also taking/took :

assembly,
html/javascript,
c#/xna,
c++ (intro),
c++ (avd),
java
 
I'm with jph and others that share the same thoughts... Stick it out and hopefully something will click. Every new thing you learn in a language feels strange and mysterious at first but after you work with it a while the intimidation wears off. Classing and subclassing are the worst of C++ so if you can wrap your head around that everything else is easy in comparison. Text books are always boring. Get your hands on some code examples that are interesting and read them through. Analyze them to see if you can get a better understanding of it. Then alter the code to your needs. This is the best method of learning a programming language IMO. Staring at static text on a page doesn't work for a lot of people.
 
[quote name='Elrinth' post='1762051' date='Feb 9 2009, 01:35 AM']today I code c# almost entierly. there's asp.net for my work and xna in my spare time. you still need to understand the part about pointers, memory allocation and similar even if you're coding in c# which doesn't really use the pointers or references in craze like c/c++ does. c++ is faster than c#, but c# is just so much more a breeze to code :)[/quote]
my friend :wub:
you do know that I teach .NET technologies (including XNA) for a living? :teach:
 
Sci: A piece of advice. If you're not enjoying your class at all this year, push through this semester, if it doesn't work, sit down and talk with your folks. Don't be whiny or anything, be very adult. Explain to them that its not the right path, and you realized this early on in the semester, but you REALLY tried to make it work. People change majors half regularly. If you don't like it, and struggle through, but it doesn't get better, its not you giving up. And hopefully your mom will understand that.

Go into this in a very mature/responsible nature, and things will work out better than expected. Unless your parents are butt-bags (you know, a bag full of butts... its not a good thing), then they'll just be butt-bags no matter how you bring it up. ;)

Just hoping they aren't. :)
 
Haha, you sound exactly like me. I started out as a math and computer science major. After Katrina my school shut down the engineering school and I had to switch majors, which I was ok with doing. I ended up graduating in philosophy, taking all of the digital media courses I could (including and independent study). I used my C++ programming experience to learn actionscripting for flash and do some pretty advanced stuff with it. I'm now teaching photoshop, flash, and illustrator.

People always say: The way to be happy with your career is to find something you love to do and then get people to pay you to do it for them!
 
[quote name='Smef' post='1763079' date='Feb 9 2009, 10:35 AM']Haha, you sound exactly like me. I started out as a math and computer science major. After Katrina my school shut down the engineering school and I had to switch majors, which I was ok with doing. I ended up graduating in philosophy, taking all of the digital media courses I could (including and independent study) and am now teaching photoshop, flash, illustrator, and web design. You've got to do what you love![/quote]

Man, that sounds like a great future for me to follow as well (sans Katriana >_>). I started college as a CompSci major. Xmas eve, after my 1st semester, i get a letter saying "Yea... don't come back." Apparently they don't like students that end a semester with a 0.68 gpa. Hmm, who'da thunk it?

So, i took some other classes, went to a community college where i started graphic design classes and took a ton of GenEd courses. Still haven't graduated, only need a few credits for an elementary ed degree, but thats not what i want (i'm a few credits from THAT degree, because of the random classes i've completed at different times.) But Philosophy would be a blast. I've considered going back and taking a few philo. classes.

And, through getting my foot in the door as a desk jockey (dealing with sales reps etc) i've been working 3 years as a graphic designer, making ads, for Clipper Magazine (or Savvy Shopper, depending on where you live in the US).

I'd love a REAL graphic design job. Almost have tons of work experience though, so i'll be keeping an eye open for those ;)
 
I'm a 4th year Comp. Science student, and I know what you're going through. In my first year, I had a C programming course that was killing me in the end, but it's absolutely worth it to stick with it until you're absolutely sure that you don't want to program as part of your living. This stuff is supposed to be hard, that way programmers can feel like they're better than everyone else.

Some tips that have helped me out:

- Write out some pseudocode (sentence-based explanation of what the code will do) and then fill in the blanks the best you can.

- Don't work for more than an hour at a time. If you're already frustrated, working for long periods w/o break will lead to less productivity. Take a 10-min breather between hours.

- Look for related code snippets online (preferably one loaded w/ comments).

- Build in increments, and test often. Don't try and cobble together the program all at once. In this program, you might consider building the text / console reader first, test, then the display, test, then
file storing, test, etc.

I'm available for some general questions if you need help, but I'm very rusty in C++ right now, so syntax isn't my strongest point.
 
I'd ask yourself "Do I hate C++, or do I hate coding in general?" If you just hate C++, then stick with it and eventually you'll move onto something else... or get used to it. If you hate coding in general, then yeah, it's time to find a new major.

Looking over that assignment of yours, it looks like you've got the classic stereotypical CS teacher, who gives you really complicated and difficult programs that in retrospect are really simple if only they explained them better.
 
Wild Won, what exactly are you doing now, and how did you get into it? I just graduated and it's been tough finding an actual design job. This teaching this was the closest I could come, but it all may be because of the economy. Most jobs I've seen are looking for people with 3-5 years of corporate experience, and aren't really entry level.
 
Thanks guys, I think I will talk to my parents about it, but wont be dropping this course (since I already paid and they would kill me). My teacher is really bad, I can't understand him or read his writing at all. He isn't that great with English, so maybe its just him. I did bad in math first semester because I also had a teacher who I couldn't understand, and I'm probably getting about a 90% in my math course now.

Thanks again for all the advice, I will be taking all of it! I have to study for my math midterm tomorrow, so I'll try and do that program all tomorrow night. Bleh!
 

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