I don't know about C++, but there are many excellent Java tutorials online. Try the sun/java website. www.java.sun.com Just a thought though, considering that in many colleges and university introductory computer science courses are taught in java
I've heard about these 'programs' that can be used to randomly create maps. A mountain here, a house there, etc etc. Has someone ever used one of these? If so, what can you say about the results?