

Ask HN: How do you approach learning new languages? - hwallace

Recently when starting to learn a new programming language I became conscious of my thought process. I was looking at segments of code, and comparing the segment to performing the same process in a language I am more adept in.<p>Is if helpful when learning to program to relate different language's syntax to each other, or should you take each language individually(aside from the general logic)?
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deveshz
Though there are sites like CodeAcademy : <http://codeacademy.com> CodeSchool
:<http://codeschool.com> LearnStreet : <http://learnstreet.com> which are
providing good content for learning particular language. They are very basics.

Chose what you want to learn - if you want to learn building a product,
understand what are the languages and frameworks you want to use and try
learning their basics first. Then chose a Cookbook and see tutorials on the
web (TutsPlus is a good place). Develop on your own. And keep solving the
bugs. Construct for all languages are same.

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jsmartonly
Each language has been created in different context, trying to solve problem
by using different approach.

Sure, they all need basic IF-ELSE, WHILE... But it is really helpful not to
focus on too detail of technical side at the beginning. At high level,
understand why author needs to create this language? Why the author did not
select existing solutions at that time? This kind of "culture" background will
help you understand language much deeper and avoid a lot of confusions.

I hope this will help.

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frou_dh
I've personally found language books that spend chapter after chapter
introducing syntax and standard library to be brutally boring, and never
finish them.

There's a lot to be said for just having a project idea in mind and picking up
knowledge on the fly as you try to hammer it out.

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pestaa
I find this especially true in the case of Haskell. When I tried to read "Real
World Haskell" my brain melted halfway through.

