QA Friday 2016-Feb-26

What’s the best way for somebody to learn another programming language? This episode explains the following nine suggestions for learning a new programming language. These are in no particular order. Read a book on the language. Join a community group. Read magazines. Get your development environment setup and running. Focus on how the new language is different than the ones you already know. Learn how things are done in the new language. Find a mentor. Enroll in a class. Watch online videos and training. Listen to the full QA episode or you can read the full transcript below. Transcript Thank you for your review and comments. If you’d like me to read your review, well, the first step is you have to leave a review. The thing I liked about this review was the endorsement from another programmer. If you’re wondering if programming can really be this easy, then yes. And if you’re struggling with something, then ask. Okay on to the question this week. I attended a conference last week called Code Camp and it was full of some quality presentations. There were so many that attendees had to choose which one of about 10 different presentations to attend at any given time. Well, I saw this topic and thought it fit very well with this podcast and decided to attend. The speaker actually never showed up so when somebody in the audience said, “Hey, I’ve got a few thoughts about this topic,” well, we just turned the whole presentation into one big group discussion. It was great. Just to be clear, the topic wasn’t how to learn your first language, but how to learn another language. There were some really good ideas that we all contributed and I’d like to share what we talked about now with you. The first thing to understand is that we’re all different. There is no one right way to learn a new programming language that applies or works well for everybody. These are just ideas and you should make sure to pick and choose what works best for you. Here are nine suggestions that I hope will help you to learn your next programming language: ◦ #1 Read a book on the language. Hey, this actually works for some people, especially if you already know a similar language or just need to review material you used to know well. This is actually how I got my first job as a programmer. I already knew the basics of programming from studying electrical engineering a few years prior and even took a semester long course in the C language. Before I interviewed for my job, I bought a book on the C language and read the entire thing in one weekend. I got the job but probably not because of my programming skills. If you want the full story, just listen to episode zero. ◦ #2 Join a community group. This is actually a good idea no matter what stage you’re in. Keep your mind open and contribute. Even if you already know something, you’ll help both yourself and another person if you share what you know. ◦ #3 Read magazines. You may not find a magazine about your programming language at your local grocery store and if you do, then I want to know where because that’s gotta be a special place. I’m not being sarcastic here. Local businesses, if they’re smart, will cater to the needs of the local customers. I’ve noticed this even with large bookstores. When I worked at Microsoft, the local bookstore had a rather large section about computers and programming. While the same store in a nearby town barely filled a single stack of shelves. You’ll have better luck with magazines by subscribing online. The nice thing about magazines is they’re usually more current than books. You’ll find topics in magazines that haven’t yet caught on with most people. This is how I learned to program C++ in the early 1990’s by reading every episode of the C++ Report and the C++ User’s Journal. And I also couldn’t wait for the next episode of MSJ or the Microsof