I study C++ effectively for last two days. Well, about 15 years ago I knew it to some degree (without STL, although with templates), but I would not count it now.
That's why my first sexual experience with C++, STL and boost::python pushed me into deep depression.
Any single error and you will get 7-10 pages of compiler errors, which are completely non-understandible for newbie like me. Googling them for 30 minutes I found, for example, that stl::iostream and its children are non-copyable streams. No need to tell that this was not obvious from things like (5 pages of):
class test_class {
public:
test_class(const char *path) : stream(path) {};
std::ofstream stream;
};
In file included from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../../../include/c++/4.4.4/bits/localefwd.h:43,
from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../../../include/c++/4.4.4/string:45,
from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../../../include/c++/4.4.4/stdexcept:39,
from /usr/include/boost/function/function_base.hpp:14,
from /usr/include/boost/function/detail/prologue.hpp:17,
from /usr/include/boost/function/function_template.hpp:13,
from /usr/include/boost/function/detail/maybe_include.hpp:13,
from /usr/include/boost/function/function0.hpp:11,
from /usr/include/boost/python/errors.hpp:13,
from /usr/include/boost/python/handle.hpp:11,
from /usr/include/boost/python/args_fwd.hpp:10,
from /usr/include/boost/python/args.hpp:10,
from /usr/include/boost/python.hpp:11,
from eee_python.cpp:16:
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../../../include/c++/4.4.4/bits/ios_base.h: In copy constructor
‘std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ios(const std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’:
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../../../include/c++/4.4.4/iosfwd:47: instantiated from
‘boost::python::objects::value_holder::value_holder(PyObject*, A0)
[with A0 = boost::reference_wrapper<const test_class>, Value = test_class]’
I stopped to count such shit error-reporting pages when I tried to export virtual functions via multi-level inheritance through boost::python. ALthough it was quite simple in tutorial...
And yet after 5 A.M. I fucking won:
[zbr@baccara lib]$ python
Python 2.6.2 (r262:71600, Jun 4 2010, 18:28:04)
[GCC 4.4.3 20100127 (Red Hat 4.4.3-4)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from libelliptics_python import elliptics_log_file
>>> w = elliptics_log_file("/dev/stderr", 31)
>>> w.log(31, "qweqweqe\n")
qweqweqe
Tomorrow I will complete Python bindings and happily hopefully forget C++ for another 15 years.
You can't try and learn full blown language in 2h and expect no troubles. You would actually were thought of stream non-copyability on the 2nd hour of course if you took proper path of learning. Now you aren't much different from zealots that try to follow tutorials to become game dev in 2 days, and moan OMGSIGSEGV. As to pages of errors, blame gcc; there are compilers out there and vendors behind them that don't take programming religiously and support languages that actually evolve and aren't PITAs to developers.
You might want to play around with Clang (http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html). It's an attempt at providing a complete GCC replacement for C, Objective-C and C++. One of its claims to fame is much, much better error reporting.
You'd probably still have to do final build with GCC but it might help you understand obscure C++ error messages.
I'm not sure, but may be wrong. I should try it if setup is simple enough :)
According to their web site, as of 6/16/2010 they can compile Boost on Linux. I haven't tried myself though.