C++ – How to Learn C++ When you are stuck in your ways with newer Languages?

I had the same problem. libcurl is really complete. There is a C++ wrapper curlpp that might interest you as you ask for a C++ library. neon is another interesting C library that also support WebDAV.

curlpp seems natural if you use C++. There are many examples provided in the source distribution. To get the content of an URL you do something like that (extracted from examples) :

// Edit : rewritten for cURLpp 0.7.3
// Note : namespace changed, was cURLpp in 0.7.2 ...

#include <curlpp/cURLpp.hpp>
#include <curlpp/Options.hpp>

// RAII cleanup

curlpp::Cleanup myCleanup;

// Send request and get a result.
// Here I use a shortcut to get it in a string stream ...

std::ostringstream os;
os << curlpp::options::Url(std::string("http://example.com"));

string asAskedInQuestion = os.str();

See the examples directory in curlpp source distribution, there is a lot of more complex cases, as well as a simple complete minimal one using curlpp.

my 2 cents ...

It's true that pointers are a big deal, and C and C++ share that concept.

But C++ is not just C with objects.

There are two free books that you can download from Planet PDF by Bruce Eckel called Thinking in C++ (volumes I and II) that will really help you get the sense of C++.

A lot of C++ also is the toolkit, whether it be the standard library (std) or MFC or the classes from the anti-grain geometry library or whatever. That too makes a difference.

If you need C++, go for C++. Learning C first is like learning Spanish so you can learn Portuguese, instead of just aiming for Portuguese.