> I'm sure many people here got into programming precisely because abstract thinking came easily to them.

Counter here: When I wanted to switch from TurboPascal during school (14y/15y) to C++ (because it was "more cool" and that was the tool that the 'big boy' game-dev-pros were, we thought), it was so damn hard for me - really! I was struggling so massivly, I head massive problems with this pointer stuff - it took me years to fully understand it.

And I was hell-bad at math in school (or maybe just too lazy), the only thing to which I a relation was all this geometric stuff (because this was needed for .. game dev! :-D )

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Zak 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Pointers are famously difficult to learn and reason about even though the basic principles are simple. Programming in a style that requires direct manipulation of pointers when it's not actually necessary is usually regarded as unwise because it's so hard to get right.

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mhjkl 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

OP had no problem with pointers prior to trying C++. I think there is a case to be made that C(++) makes pointers unnecessarily confusing and there is no real disconnect between understanding pointers in theory and in practice otherwise

	▲	joquarky 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		And C++ makes everything extra confusing with the capability of operator overloading. That has to be one of the worst features ever added to a language.
	▲	NooneAtAll3 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> I head massive problems with this pointer stuff no, OP explicitly had problem after getting introduced to pointer concept

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t-3 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Pointers aren't hard, it's C/C++ that make them complicated. Addresses and indirection in any assembly language are simple and straightforward, easy and even intuitive once you start actually writing programs.

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KellyCriterion 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

...thats the reason why I love managed environments like C#/Java/etc :-))