About 5 weeks ago (20 Oct, 2007) I wrote that I wasn't happy with being locked into a software development package, Realbasic, and as a result was looking around for other programming language(s) to learn. I say 'locked in' as my current pet project, the Wordpress to Drupal converter, has come to a stand-still. In my current version of Realbasic, the programming language used to create the converter, there is a bug relating to Windows Vista and MySql. In short I've been told that the next version of Realbasic rectifies this problem. The issue I have is that my licence period has expired which means to receive updates involves renewing my licence.

Since that entry of 5 weeks ago I've been all over the shop with which programming language(s) to learn/study and have since changed my mind slightly from what I wrote back then. Back then it was all systems go to study the Ruby Programming Language. Ruby is still in my sights but at the moment is on the back-burner.

My ultimate aim hasn't changed in that whatever programming language I study it must be open source and deployable cross platform. My rational is that I don't want to be at the mercy of a proprietary company or in other words 'locked-in' and very difficult or costly to continue development. The situation I'm presently in.

I mention the situation I'm presently in, though I believe it's a blessing in disguise. I'm getting off my arse and purposely sinking my teeth into new areas.

I checked out many different languages including, Java, C++, Ruby, Basic to name a few. The upshot is that I eventually decided on C++. Why C++ and not the others. Isn't C++ really difficult, awkward and generally not very user friendly. The answer is 'yes' but if it was easy, wouldn't everybody be doing it.

As you've probably gathered I'm not approaching C++ as a complete novice. Some years ago a component of a computer course I undertook involved an introduction to the C programming language, a precursor to C++. The course also included exposure to Cobol, Visual Basic and Access Database, though I was already well and truly familiar with those languages (except Cobol - never want to see that again). After the course, about 2005, I started studying C++ and as a result amassed a heap of books, that in itself cost a small fortune.

In 2005 I didn't quite finish my self-study. Looking back I suppose I can lay the blame on my other project, which was into its 10th year at that time (and still going strong today). In a nutshell I designed, developed and implemented an investigation program, known as 'TaySys - Criminal Case Management System' which was written entirely within Microsoft Access. This was at my initiation for my employer, Victoria Police, Fraud Squad. Due to updates and fixes required, usually at my initiation, interfered with my C++ study and ultimately all continuity went out the window. I might add that I am not employed as a programmer (should be) merely a detective.

So here I am now. Why should this time around be any different. Well for starters, I'm now on 6 months long service leave. As you can imagine I've got a heap of time on my hands and this time around I'm going to be more disciplined in my study. For one, I'll be logging my time spent and recording what learnt in a session along with a to-do type list. I'm going to take my time with the subject and not speed read. I'm sure we've all done this, read something once, yep - understand that, makes sense and move on and before we know it 2, 3 or 4 chapters have gone by in the space of 20 or 30 minutes. I'm actually taking notes, as if I had to pass a test at some point in the future. I find merely writing out my summarised version helps me understand the topic more so, of course this takes time but time, in my case, well spent.

Well that's all for this entry. Next entry should be a follow-up relating to the resources that I'm using to achieve my goal.

Nearly forgot, I'm already 2 weeks into my study, 29 hrs for the first week and currently 15 hrs for the second week. Maybe I should create a table for those sorts of stats.