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I'd like to see more guides for how to get started with a particular language for someone who is already an experienced developer in another language. It seems

by ufmace 12y ago

I'd like to see more guides for how to get started with a particular language for someone who is already an experienced developer in another language. It seems to be true for pretty much every language that most of the guides for learning them are written for novice developers, and most of the rest are in-depth description and discussion on how tricky parts of the language work. Especially something with good background information, like how the language and ecosystem around it is different from other languages, what the choices are for IDEs and syntax-aware editors and some pros and cons, what the good language-specific resources and references are, the best ways to do debugging and deployment, etc.

V-2 12y ago
Yes, exactly. I wrote my comment before I read yours. Repasting it here... I wish there were more books and series like "Language A for language B programmers". Whenever I'm trying to learn a new language, I have to sift through resources and filter out all the fluff which stems from an assumption it is my FIRST programming language and tries to teach me what a for loop is. What's more, one's proficiency in language A can be leveraged by explaining some constructs of language B in terms of concepts that exist in A, pointing out specific traps, caveats, "false friends" etc. I mean something like this: http://appendto.com/2010/10/how-good-c-habits-can-encourage-bad-javascript-habits-part-1/ http://appendto.com/2010/10/how-good-c-habits-can-encourage-... http://blog.boyet.com/blog/javascriptlessons/?p=5 http://blog.boyet.com/blog/javascriptlessons/?p=5 Or this: http://www.bobtacoindustries.com/Content/Devs/CsToCpp-ASomewhatShortGuide.pdf http://www.bobtacoindustries.com/Content/Devs/CsToCpp-ASomew... Favorite quote: Templates are sort of like .NET generics except that they aren't. :))
- ufmace 12y ago
  Good links. I was actually writing a blog post on entry-level Javascript. A lot of that stuff looks relatively high-level, though - interesting, but not something that's very applicable until you've gotten a decent understanding of Javascript basics.
alok-g 12y ago
Indeed. Here is one resource that has helped me though it does not cover everything you have mentioned (which I miss too): http://learnxinyminutes.com/ http://learnxinyminutes.com/ I find python's documentation to be the worst in this regard (I would love to hear that I am wrong) -- I can never get anything to work using just the documentation; I always end up needing stack-overflow or Google searches. More than a book, I would like reduction in fragmentation around programming language tools, libraries and platforms.
jonjacky 12y ago
PH Winston's books are exactly what you are looking for: On To Java, On To C, On To C++, On To SmallTalk. They appeared around 2000 and are now on the web: http://people.csail.mit.edu/phw/OnToC/ http://people.csail.mit.edu/phw/OnToC/ etc. They are written in an unusual format built around slides rather than pages - even the printed versions.

by ufmace 12y ago

V-2 12y ago

Yes, exactly. I wrote my comment before I read yours. Repasting it here... I wish there were more books and series like "Language A for language B programmers". Whenever I'm trying to learn a new language, I have to sift through resources and filter out all the fluff which stems from an assumption it is my FIRST programming language and tries to teach me what a for loop is. What's more, one's proficiency in language A can be leveraged by explaining some constructs of language B in terms of concepts that exist in A, pointing out specific traps, caveats, "false friends" etc. I mean something like this: http://appendto.com/2010/10/how-good-c-habits-can-encourage-bad-javascript-habits-part-1/ http://appendto.com/2010/10/how-good-c-habits-can-encourage-... http://blog.boyet.com/blog/javascriptlessons/?p=5 http://blog.boyet.com/blog/javascriptlessons/?p=5 Or this: http://www.bobtacoindustries.com/Content/Devs/CsToCpp-ASomewhatShortGuide.pdf http://www.bobtacoindustries.com/Content/Devs/CsToCpp-ASomew... Favorite quote: Templates are sort of like .NET generics except that they aren't. :))

ufmace 12y ago
Good links. I was actually writing a blog post on entry-level Javascript. A lot of that stuff looks relatively high-level, though - interesting, but not something that's very applicable until you've gotten a decent understanding of Javascript basics.

alok-g 12y ago

Indeed. Here is one resource that has helped me though it does not cover everything you have mentioned (which I miss too): http://learnxinyminutes.com/ http://learnxinyminutes.com/ I find python's documentation to be the worst in this regard (I would love to hear that I am wrong) -- I can never get anything to work using just the documentation; I always end up needing stack-overflow or Google searches. More than a book, I would like reduction in fragmentation around programming language tools, libraries and platforms.

jonjacky 12y ago

PH Winston's books are exactly what you are looking for: On To Java, On To C, On To C++, On To SmallTalk. They appeared around 2000 and are now on the web: http://people.csail.mit.edu/phw/OnToC/ http://people.csail.mit.edu/phw/OnToC/ etc. They are written in an unusual format built around slides rather than pages - even the printed versions.