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Isn't that how people who have been programming a fair amount of time do it? Or do they buy new books every time they're interested in a language?

jeffreymcmanus 16y ago
Learning by Google: get 1,000,000 search results for every phrase you type in, no clue whether it's complete or even accurate, no clue when you've learned enough to be proficient. Learn by book: get the information you need organized in a sensible fashion by someone who's an expert on the subject. Learn by taking a course from an expert: all the advantages of learning by book, plus you get answers to your questions that may not be covered in the text, quizzes to reinforce what you've learned, practice exercises, etc.
- Zev 16y ago
  Maybe its just me and because (I like to think that) I'm pretty decent at writing good software, but I find that I best learn a programming language by writing code, not by doing any of the above. As for what I use to get to the point where I can write code? Code written by others, in snippet form, as an example, or part of a full app.
  - jeffreymcmanus 16y ago
    If you don't know the language to begin with, how could you possibly know what code to write? How do you know what's important? How do you know that what you're doing is correct? How do you know when you're done?
- chromatic 16y ago
  Learn by book: get the information you need organized in a sensible fashion by someone who's an expert on the subject. That's true if the book is any good--I've read far too many tech books with little semblance of editing or organization.
- hsmyers 16y ago
  Two things to remember here: Sturgeon's Law--- 90% of everything is crap as applied to books and as a beginner who are you to distinguish? The second thing regarding classes is that teachers like everyone else all hang out on a bell curve, this creates its own version of Sturgeons Law; how is the beginning student to know a good instructor from otherwise?

jeffreymcmanus 16y ago

Learning by Google: get 1,000,000 search results for every phrase you type in, no clue whether it's complete or even accurate, no clue when you've learned enough to be proficient. Learn by book: get the information you need organized in a sensible fashion by someone who's an expert on the subject. Learn by taking a course from an expert: all the advantages of learning by book, plus you get answers to your questions that may not be covered in the text, quizzes to reinforce what you've learned, practice exercises, etc.

Zev 16y ago
Maybe its just me and because (I like to think that) I'm pretty decent at writing good software, but I find that I best learn a programming language by writing code, not by doing any of the above. As for what I use to get to the point where I can write code? Code written by others, in snippet form, as an example, or part of a full app.
- jeffreymcmanus 16y ago
  If you don't know the language to begin with, how could you possibly know what code to write? How do you know what's important? How do you know that what you're doing is correct? How do you know when you're done?
chromatic 16y ago
Learn by book: get the information you need organized in a sensible fashion by someone who's an expert on the subject. That's true if the book is any good--I've read far too many tech books with little semblance of editing or organization.
hsmyers 16y ago
Two things to remember here: Sturgeon's Law--- 90% of everything is crap as applied to books and as a beginner who are you to distinguish? The second thing regarding classes is that teachers like everyone else all hang out on a bell curve, this creates its own version of Sturgeons Law; how is the beginning student to know a good instructor from otherwise?