Friday, July 28, 2006

Learning C++

I’m taking (actually, retaking) Computer Science 240 right now. So I’m learning C++. This is someting I’ve always wanted to do. I was maybe 10 years old when we got Turbo C++. My dad was the only one who knew how to use it, but still, I had fun playing with the “Heap Walker” program. I wasn’t able to learn simply by experimentation, like I did with QBASIC. Now, having paid some of my dues with tuition and time, I feel like I’m learning the language. The project we’re working on right now in class is an implementation of make. I’ve been hacking away, learning how to deal with circular #include’s, finding memory leaks and fixing segmentation faults. Maybe sometime soon I’ll be able to start contributing to some Open Source projects - another long-time goal of mine.

Here’s something I would like to code into KDevelop: a plugin that allows the file list sidebar to be sorted to have the most recently used files on top. Somehow there has to be a more optimal way to switch between source files than pushing Ctrl+/ and typing the name of the file, or moving the mouse cursor over to click on the ‘File List’ sidebar button, then back over to the file that you want to open. How about a key combination that cycles through the last five most recently used files? There must be some better way.