Thanks to both of you for replying. Your answers helped a great deal. Now it's time to get busy. But one thing though. In light of the fact unmanaged code isn't going anywhere anytime soon and it's the language that counts, does it really matter what version of Visual Studio I use to learn or program in C++? I have Visual Studio 6 Pro and would rather invest in books and learning material than another IDE. Besides, all the books I've looked at for C++, the language not MS Visual C++, have never said anything about what tools or compiler to use and that confused me too. Lonnie

Hello everyone, I hope you all can help me with my problem :). I decided to learn C++ because of it's power and because it's cross platform (I guess the typical reasons). I use Windows so that will be the platform I will be programming for until I learn enough to venture to other platforms. It seems everything related to Windows programming is going to managed .Net code. In light of this, what is the best way to learn C++ the language, not a platform or framework? As I understand from similar posts, in order to learn C++ for any platform, one must learn the language then the interested platforms/frameworks. Should I look into tools by Borland, use Visual Studio 6, or Visual Studio.Net? What books should I read? I am just generally confused on the process of learning C++ when the platform I will be programming for is making a drastic change. :P Any input on the learning process will be extremely helpful. Lonnie