Hi everyone,

I’m Nikolai, a C++ developer and the author of No More Helloworlds: Build a Real C++ App.

The book grew out of something I kept noticing both in my own career and when talking to other developers: learning C++ syntax is one problem, but learning how to build a real application is a completely different one.

Things like architecture, CMake, testing, dependency management, CI, and project structure are often learned separately, even though in a real project they influence each other all the time.

I’m currently collecting feedback for future updates to the book, and I’m curious:

What was the hardest part for you when moving from learning a programming language to building real software?

For C++ developers in particular, was it architecture, build systems, testing, dependencies, tooling, or something else?

I’d be very interested to hear different perspectives.