How to Learn a New Coding Language Fast

nettuts.com

11 points·adnymarc··11 comments

anyone else felt reading that article was a waste of time? anyone seen any brilliant tip here that will let you learn a language faster than you used to?

I see no brilliant tips...in fact, the rush to connect to the DB seemed odd to me. I am all for cookbook type approaches to learning, but this one seems inherently limited in focus. Maybe if I know Python and i'm trying to learn PHP? I'm trying to imagine where that is applicable.

Even worse, it's misguiding, just try to apply it to say Haskell. Good luck! ;-) Writing code is THE way to go.

What's a coding language?

It's something you write codes in.

(a pet peeve of mine is when people refer to code as "codes")

Old-school mechanical engineers say "codes" when referring to FORTRAN programs.

But in the case of this article I think he means PHP.

It's like using "software" as a count noun.

Step 1: Read Peter Norvig's essay about how there is no shortcut to learning how to program. Now your expectations should be tuned to a realistic setting.

Step 2: Read and write code as often as possible.

Step 3: Wait at least 10 years.

Step 2 is the important one. You'll know you're getting close to learning how to program when you don't need a top 10 list to learn the syntax for a new language in a programming paradigm you are already familiar with. You'll only need a quiet long weekend.

Step 4: ????

Step 5: Profit!

I'll show myself out...

Honestly, cheat sheets and the like have never been that useful for me. The only thing that seems to work is to figure out a project and dive in.

Content-free. Boring. Waste of time.

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