The problem I have, is that most of the C++ books I read spend almost forever on

Question

The problem I have, is that most of the C++ books I read spend almost forever on syntax and the basics of the language, e.g. for and loops while, arrays, lists, pointers, etc.

But they never seem to build anything that is simple enough to use for learning, yet practical enough to get you to understand the philosophy and power of the language.

Then I stumbled upon QT which is an amazing library!

But working through the demos they have, it seems like I am now in the reverse dilemma. I feel like the rich man's son driving round in a sports car subsidized by the father. Like I could build fantastic software, but have no clue what's going on under the hood.

As an example of my dilemma take the task of building a simple web browser. In pure C++, I wouldn't even know where to start, yet with the Qt library it can be done within a few lines on code.

I am not complaining about this. I am just wondering how to fill the knowledge void between the basic structure of the language and the high level interface that the Qt framework provides?

Explanation / Answer

Do you want to know how stepping on the accelerator makes the car go faster, or do you only care that stepping on the accelerator makes the car go faster?

You are seeing the benefit to black box programming, which is a great way to design a system when all the boxes work. Someone has to make the black boxes though and if you want to be that guy/girl then you need to know more about the language than the guy using the box.

There are jobs that are good jobs in each style, so its up to you what you want to program. IMO you would be doing yourself a disservice though if you didn't put forth the effort to peel back some of the abstraction QT is giving you eventually.

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