
Ask HN: How do you test-drive a new programming language? What do you build? - GeneralMaximus
Hi HN,<p>I&#x27;ve been reading through Bruce Tate&#x27;s excellent Seven Languages in Seven Weeks and really enjoying the chapter on Io (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;iolanguage.org). The example problems in the book have been fun to solve, but I want to see how the language scales to larger problems. This is where my problem starts.<p>Io barely has a community. Libraries are either unavailable or unmaintained. There are very few examples on the Web that describe what people have built with it.<p>I build front-end Web applications for a living, so my first instinct when learning a new language&#x2F;framework is to build some simple UIs (todo lists, spreadsheets, etc), or small games (pong, space invaders, etc). If I like the language, I scale up to something more complex, like a reddit client or chat application.<p>Since Io doesn&#x27;t have bindings to GUI libraries, doesn&#x27;t compile to JS, and I can&#x27;t get the OpenGL bindings to work correctly on the Mac, I&#x27;m at a dead end.<p>So far, I&#x27;m thinking of building a dungeon crawler, since I only need simple console I&#x2F;O for that. However, I&#x27;d like to know what kind of applications other people build with a new programming language. I feel programming puzzles like Project Euler or reimplementations of common data structures don&#x27;t really reflect the real-world of a language. I prefer to build the kind of applications I&#x27;m likely to use myself.<p>So HN, what applications do you build when you learn a new programming language?
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AnsisMalins
For me, it's the other way around. I find a piece of technology that I want to
use, and then, sometimes, it comes with a new programming language I have to
learn. For example, I didn't install Python and then wonder what to do with
it. I was using Mercurial, had a need for a custom plugin, so I learned Python
so I could write the plugin.

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GeneralMaximus
I understand your viewpoint. I do this, too, when I'm trying to achieve a
specific goal.

In my free time, though, I like to explore different programming
languages/paradigms. It's a fun hobby.

I'd love some advice on what I can do to properly exercise a programming
language so I can understand it at more than just surface level.

