You may be productive and comfortable in one programming language but find the idea of learning a new programming language daunting. Or you may know and use multiple programming languages but haven't learnt a new one in a while. Or you might be a programming language geek who is just curious about how others dive into new programming languages and get productive quickly. No matter how easy or difficult it is for you to engage in new programming languages, this article explains how I like to learn new programming languages. Although people learn best in different ways, I hope you'll find my thought process interesting even if you decide to take a different approach.
Background
Language N+1
This article isn't aimed at learning to program. Learning your first programming language is much harder than learning an additional one. The reason is that many abstract concepts are involved in computer programming. When you first encounter programming, most languages require you to understand concepts like iteration, scopes, (im)mutability, arrays, modules, functions, and much more. The good news is that when you learn an additional language you'll already be familiar with common concepts and can therefore take a more streamlined approach in order to get up to speed quickly.
Courses, videos, exercises
There is a lot of educational material online that teaches various programming languages, but I don't find structured courses, videos, or exercises efficient. If you already know common programming concepts and have an idea of what you want to build in the new programming language, then it's more efficient to chart your own course. Materials that let you jump/skip around will let you focus on information that is novel and that you actually need. Working through a series of exercises that someone else designed may be time spent practicing the wrong things since usually you are the one with the best idea of what to practice. Courses, videos, and exercises tend to be an "on the rails" experience where you are exposed to information in a linear fashion whether it's useful at the moment or not.
1. Understanding the computational model
The first question about a new programming language is "what is its computational model?". Sadly, many language manuals and websites do not describe the computational model beyond what programming paradigms are supported (object-oriented, concatenative, functional, logic programming, etc). The actual computational model may only become fully apparent later. Or it might be expressed in too much detail in a language standards document to be of use early on. In any case, it's worthwhile reading the programming language's website for information on the computational model to grasp the big picture.
It's the computational model that you need to understand in order to write programs. Often we think about syntax and language features too much when learning a new language. The computational model informs us how to break down requirements into programs. We approach logic programming differently from object-oriented programming in how we organize data and code. The syntax and to an extent even the language features don't matter.
Understanding the computational model also helps you situate the new programming language relative to others, especially programming languages that you already know. It will give you an idea of how different programming will be and where you'll need to learn new concepts.
2. The language tutorial
After familiarizing yourself with the computational model of the programming language, the next step is to learn the basic syntax and concepts. Most modern programming languages have an official tutorial available online. The tutorial introduces the language elements, usually with short examples, and its table of contents gives an overview of what the language consists of. The tutorial can be completed in a few hours or days. Unlike full courses, official programming language tutorials often lend themselves to non-linear reading, which is helpful when certain aspects of the language are already familiar or will not be relevant to you.
I remember reading the Python tutorial in an afternoon years ago, but watch out: at this point you might be able to write valid syntax but you won't be writing idiomatic code yet. There's that saying "you can write FORTRAN in any language". In order to write programs that are expressed naturally and take advantage of the language effectively, more effort will be necessary.
3. Writing toy programs
After becoming aware of the language elements the next step is to explore how the language works. This can be done by writing small programs. Often these toy programs are familiar tasks you've already solved in other languages. If you want to write games, maybe it's Pong. If you write web applications, it could be a todo list. There are lots of different well-known programs to write.
During the course of writing toy programs you'll encounter syntax errors or issues with the program. Learning to interpret common error messages is important because they will come up in more complicated scenarios later where it can be harder to resolve them if you haven't seen them before.
You'll also hit common tasks for which you need to find solutions in the standard library or language reference manual. Whether it's parsing command-line options, regular expression matching, HTTP requests, or error handling, the language probably has a way of doing it. Toy programs present a simple environment in which to explore the basic facilities of a programming language.
4. Gaining a deeper appreciation for the language
Once you have written some toy programs you'll be able to start writing your own programs that solve new problems. At this stage you start being productive but there is still more to learn. In particular, the language's idioms and patterns must be studied in order to write natural code. Once I have experience with the basics of a language I like to read the source code to the standard library, popular libraries, and popular applications. In the beginning this is hard because they use unfamiliar language features or library dependencies, but after following up on unknown parts of one program, you'll find it becomes easier to read other programs because your knowledge of the language has expanded.
At this point it is also worth looking for style guides, manuals on language idioms, and documentation on common gotchas or anti-patterns. These will provide the information about thinking natively in the new programming language. This is what's needed to become fluent in the language and capable of reading and writing real programs confidently.
Although I have presented steps in a linear order, learning complex subjects is often an iterative process. Sometimes I find myself jumping back and forth between steps as my understanding evolves.
Conclusion
Learning a new programming language is time-consuming no matter how you do it. However, it doesn't all need to happen upfront and after a few days of reading the documentation and experimenting with toy programs, it's possible to peform basic tasks. Learning how to use a language effectively by studying popular programs and reading guides is the quickest way I've found to reaching fluency. Finally, it just takes practice!
