Disclaimer: I still consider myself "new" to programming. I'm not an expert by any means. I just want to share my story.

Ever since I started listening to discussions surrounding memory management, I've had a growing interest in C/C++. Several months ago, I began studying open source C++ repositories and trying to put together all the pieces of a mostly complete program.

It was a disaster, honestly. I quickly came to realize that my first impression of programming was overly simplistic and due for a refactor. I depended on the verbose nature of Java more than I thought I did. I took for granted all the things the Java Virtual Machine handled automatically until I was introduced to header files and Cmake. I'd argue this is one of the most important recognitions I've made about programming in general so far. It made me focus more on compiler behavior, pre-compile tasks, and all the madness going on in the terminal rather than just how good I can code, follow exception messages or solve surface level problems.

My advice for new learners of C or C++:

1. Be very patient with it. Take extended breaks (burnout can occur quickly)

2. The coding part will mostly be simple following a tutorial. It's everything else regarding the compiler tasks, headers, proper linking, and so on that will be troubling because it's not common for Java programmers to deal with that.

3. Reading code others wrote in C++ will be madness, but it is necessary for learning. Stay resilient. You'll eventually start following the logic more easily.

4. There are several C/C++ compilers out there. make sure you're choosing the one the project you're looking at expects. It's been an unexpected sticking point for me. People say the compiler won't make any meaningful difference in performance, which can be mistaken as saying the compiler choice doesn't matter at all. It will matter, just not for performance.

5. Cmake is a friend, not a foe. Follow its instructions and download the CMake UI so you can see all the missing data at once. It'll mostly be seen in large projects.

6. Building a project is less about the code itself and more about file linking. Pointing the compiler to all associated files is top priority to learn (in my opinion)

7. C/C++ makes no assumptions about your platform. That's more significant than I first imagined. It's another thing the JVM handles under the hood

If I am misguided about any of this, please let me know. Drop some stories in the comments about your learning experience as well and I'll happily read them