Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages?

Re:Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages? by nareshv on Saturday March 22, 2014 @12:31AM (#7447578)

This was taught to me in college a decade.

"Programming language is just a syntax, the core logic of getting things done is already available in your brain."

Here is what i'd do

A) Remember what you already learnt from your favorite language

  1] Syntax

  2] Libraries

  3] Reference Documentation

  4] Organizing your code

  5] Building / Running Programs

  6] Deploying code to farms of servers (if you are interested in sysops, explore this as well)

B) Once you get a hang of basic syntax, start with Examples and keep making progress.

C) Pick a simple task, from what you have already solved before. Program it in the new language by expanding your skills towards 2-5 points and you are done !

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages? by dkersten on Saturday March 22, 2014 @08:56AM (#7448863)

"Programming language is just a syntax, the core logic of getting things done is already available in your brain."

Is this actually true, though, when jumping between programming paradigms?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages? by danellis on Saturday March 22, 2014 @09:11PM (#7451635)

No, it doesn't really hold up. To use an example of where I recently had to change the way I thought of things: you might have, say, an intuitive understanding of the logic to make a series of dependent network requests, any of which could fail, but you'll have to reevaluate that when you try a functional language with monadic futures.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages? by amirouche on Saturday March 22, 2014 @09:44AM (#7449008)

My only experience learning a new language that use a completly different paradigm is Prolog. The syntax and builtins make it hard to write something else that what it is meant for.

Do you mean learning or mastering a language. It is kind of different. Looking for "ideomatic python" will help getting pythonic Python code done.

Not going against the spirit of the language helps.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How do experienced programmers learn new languages? by dkersten on Saturday March 22, 2014 @03:19PM (#7450421)

Well, even just using a language (without mastering it) can be a lot more difficult than simply learning the syntax.

For example, many years ago, before I really got functional programming, I tried to learn ML and while I figured the syntax out very quickly, solving problems in a functional style was a lot more difficult and I found it hard to use the language. Learning to use Python or Ruby or Java or C#, albeit not idiomatically, is a hell of a lot easier.

Of course, knowing a language is a lot more than just learning enough to use it, though you certainly don't have to master a language to know it (and many people will never completely master their languages, despite knowing them quite well and using them effectively - for example, I'd wager few people have truly mastered C++).

[ Parent | on HN ]