I learn better, or should I say I only learn how to program when I have an actual problem to solve.

My current "problem" is figuring out how to generate more data out of my Ode blog's filesystem for my Ode Counter add-in.

I already report on the number of blog entries, how many are "real" entries and how many are Ode-generated social-media updates, plus how many images are in the filesystem and how many of those appear in actual blog posts.

Another thing I have wanted to do since I began using Ode was have the system generate a Categories/directories list in HTML for both a dedicated "site map" page as well as a sidebar display.

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I might as well come right out with it.

I'm going back to school. Community college. For computer science.

Ilene thought I should do it at least a year ago. She's smart that way. It took me awhile to come around. Back then I thought a curriculum anchored in the C++ language (with smatterings of C, Java and C#) and not today's languages of the web (Javascript, Python and Ruby ... OK, really just Javascript) was not for me.

I was ready to do it all on my own: find a language and a framework and a reason to learn them and go. (A few months ago, I even learned a little Go.)

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As I ease in to learning how to code in C++, I have a couple of "real" IDEs at my disposal (chiefly Netbeans and Microsoft Visual Studio), I was pleased to find out that my favorite not-quite-an-IDE Geany will build and run both Java and C++ code.

And Geany can do this on Linux/Unix, Windows and Macintosh computers. (It uses the Unixy g++ even in Windows for C++ code.

I even tested a Perl script in Windows, where I'm using Strawberry Perl. Geany will automatically run a Perl script (on a Perl-equipped Windows computer) when I click on the "Execute" button. It opens Perl in the Windows terminal and runs the script without needing to leave the "IDE."

Note: I did install Microsoft Visual Studio Community because I have a feeling I'm going to need it (though instinctively I lean toward Netbeans, and practically am using Geany).

One thing I'm learning about C++ as I dip the very tips of my toes into its vast waters: Like Perl but more so, there is definitely more than one way to do it.

I just found this great list of free C++ books from @TFETimes

I picked up about five.

Like me.

I've got plenty of IDEs on my laptop. At least one has been here a while (Padre, focused on Perl). A few have been here a short time (Eclipse, Netbeans, whatever incarnation of IntelliJ comes with Android Studio).

I've barely used any of them. There is a learning curve.

I never really needed Padre. I write scripts with text editors (often gedit, sometimes Notepad++ if I'm in Windows).

I like Netbeans, and I am able to create, compile and run simple Java programs with it.

I tried to create a C++ program in Netbeans after adding C and C++ support but got held up at the make/configure script portion.

That was after I created a script in gedit and used g++ on the command line to compile it. That works.

So I turned to Geany, the "IDE" (heavy quotation marks) I've been using not just for my rudimentary Java programs but also for most of my general text editing (I need cr/lf line endings for my company's main CMS, and gedit is kind of broken in this regard).

Since I have OpenJDK and all the C build tools installed on my Fedora system, Geany happily builds and runs my Java programs and my now-sole C++ program (see it above). Not much of a learning curve. Click the build brick, then click the "run" gears.

That's it.

There will be a time in the near future when I will need to run a "real" IDE. I will need training wheels.