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Ask HN: Tips for experienced developers learning new languages?

by hazard on 8/3/21, 7:08 PM with 2 comments

I'm a senior dev who's mostly programmed in C++ and Python, and I'm now looking at learning Rust. It's been about a decade since I learned a new language, and I'm wondering if anyone has tips beyond "read the docs, write lots of code."

Has there been any formal research on new programming language acquisition? Does anyone have a specific "new language" process that works particularly well for them?

  • by aszen on 8/3/21, 7:36 PM

    I personally deeply understand a new language only if I write the same code in two languages, one that I already know very well in your case c++ and the other I'm trying to learn, in your case that's rust. If i just learn from the docs and make new things I miss out on a ton of thinking on why things work the way they do in the new language versus the old one. Essentially it's sort of comparative language analysis

  • by jamil7 on 8/3/21, 7:15 PM

    I don't have any fancy techniques for you, I pretty much always go here first https://learnxinyminutes.com, get a feel for the language and then try to build something small using the official docs.