Basic C++ tutorials?

Since there's no open source discussion forum I figure this is the best place to ask...

Can anyone recommend a website that walks you through using/compiling C++? I would like to be able to apply resident created patches to the viewer code (like Zwagoth's upload SL format animations, or the flexi sculpt patches) and C++ seems like something I can manage, but the compiling part is really confusing to me. All I've had to go on so far is the instructions on the SL open source wiki, but that usually assumes the reader already knows how to run these programs. Any suggestions?

Can't answer you directly, but I guess the Scripting Forum would be the best place to ask. Lots of guys there have C++ experience.

Rock

@Maya
A good starting point is http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Get_source_and_compile.
Assuming you are trying to build a Windows viewer quite good step by step instructions are here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Builds. It's a bit of work in the beginning but you need to do it only once.

If you need specific help there are some mailing lists. Check out http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sldev

I don't want to be negative, but I am not sure a basic C++ tutorial is going to help you much. The SL C++ source code is hardly "basic". Building C++ from source is not at all "basic".

I suggest you set your self small goals, and get help as you need it.

Download the source.
Compile the source.
Link the source into an executable.
Apply one simple patch to source.
Rebuild.

Repeat ad nauseaum.

That's what I'm trying to do. But the wiki instructions assume the reader already knows what they're doing. I'm fine up until the "Building with CMake" step. It says to run a Python script from the command line. Since CMake doesn't have a command line I assumed it meant the DOS prompt, but that didn't work, it just gives an error.

EDIT: And I haven't yet seen instructions for applying a patch.

Ugh now it's complaining about artwork not being present despite the fact that it's there, and the build fails because of a missing "arrow.cur" I don't recall SL using its own cursor.

I know what you mean about the instructions in the wiki. Some of the responses here are like the wiki help.

You could try joining that mailing list http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sldev and describing your general situation (C++ newcomer) and describing your problem in detail. Make a copy of your post so you have it at hand to post anywhere else useful you might find. There's an inworld group you could try, SL Open Source discussion group; at the very least you could ask where to go for detailed help with your first compile.

I now see a wiki page that might be useful: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Communication_tools . There are links to an IRC chat group (Linden operated) and to several inworld groups you might want to join.

You can search the on-the-web archives of the SLdev mailing list using Google advance search page to limit you search to the appropriate domain.

Good luck. If I personally had the answers to your questions I'd tell but I haven't done a compile myself yet; I know it won't go smoothly and that getting useful answers to questions instead of ones like "Download. Compile" will be like pulling teeth.

Thanks Sharcel, I guess I'll join the mailing list. I didn't want to, because I'll just get confused by the messages about stuff I don't understand, but since my problem is probably something extremely simple to someone who knows what they're doing, that's probably my best bet. I'm already getting a headache just thinking about trying to describe what's going on though.

I understand completely about getting a headache about describing what you've done and what the result has been.

Here's an example of one sort of problem a beginner might run in to that may not be covered by the wiki instructions. Some of the files resulting from installing Cygwin trigger the AVG anti-virus detector, or at least they did a while back. They aren't virus infected or a type of malware, they use a type of compression and decompression that is sometimes used by malware, and this is (or was when I had this problem) reported as malware by AVG. So in the midst of trying to follow the instructions I started getting getting antivirus warnings. Not what a novice needs to have happen, and if it does, it would nice to have a real time helper around to, umm, help.

The IRC group can be helpful, although there aren't enough people on it to expect to always get a prompt response. If you don't have an IRC client installed, and don't want to install one, I believe there are web based IRC clients that will work without having to install anything. If you use Firefox, there's an extension called Chatzilla that will work.