I program for a living. I have been doing it for 11 years now. Started off with COBOL and now program VB6, C#, and T-SQL.
- I agree with the others to stay away from C++. Unless you want to program full time, as opposed to trading full time, C++ is not the direction you want to go.
- I say to pick a language that CQG supports. Try to figure out if you can which language might have the most CQG stuff written in it.
- I have always found it is easier to learn programming by taking an existing program that you know works, and tweaking it to see what happens. See if you can find a simple indicator and then tweak it. Change a 10 period moving average and change it into a 8 or 12. Modify it to display in a different color or style. Those are all likely settings that can be changed programatically.
- When you look at something you know works, it eases the pressure of having to know it all to get going. You don't need to know it all, just modify it for what you need. This will obviously leaves gaps in your knowlege. You might decide to fill in those gaps or be satisfied with what you have if it is working for you.
- If you get something working, but it is not fast enough or whatever, you can then post it and have others critique it or pay to have a professional make it into everything you want it to be.
Hope this helps.