7 Ways to Learn a New Programming Language

1. Read a Book

This is perhaps the most traditional approach. You have to be careful with this one, because in programming things evolve very quickly. If you are looking for some good, up-to-date books on languages, I would suggest The Pragmatic Bookshelf.

2. Watch YouTube Videos and Follow Along

There are an insane amount of YouTube tutorials out there. My main difficulty with learning programming on YouTube has always been finding reliable teachers. I generally trust GoogleTechTalks and TheNewBoston as go-tos.

3. Start a New Project

Simply learn by doing! It is probably best to do this after you have had some form of a primer on the language. This is one of the most effective ways I have learned new languages. Just think about what you want to build, open google and stackoverflow (keep them handy for language-specific questions) and start coding away!

4. Complete Koans

Koans (path to enlightenment) are a superb way to gain some understanding about a new programming language. Usually test driven, they make you fix small "errors" in code files that emphasize some little feature of the language. Koans are generally incremental so by solving them, a broader understanding of the language is gained.

5. Practice with Cyber-Dojo

This is another tool that you may want to use after you have had some primer on the language you are trying to learn. Cyber-dojo is a cool tool for practicing TDD. It isolates programmers from bloated IDEs so that they can focus on problems, code and tests. Cyber-dojo values finding solutions over the actual solution itself. This makes it a great resource for learning a language, purely from a "writing and testing code" perspective.

6.  (If you like Math) Practice with Project Euler

If you can't come up with projects to work on, ProjectEuler presents some fun mathematical challenges that (should) grow harder as you progress through the list of problems. It's fun to develop a code-base around ProjectEuler solutions.

7. (If you like Biology) Practice with Rosalind

Like ProjectEuler, Rosalid is a collection of programming-esque problems. Unlike ProjectEuler, Rosalind problems are centered around Biology. Very cool, and fun.

Extra Tips

• Some languages have online, interactive teaching tutorials which can be cool to check out.
• If an language has an REPL, it can be helpful to play around in it or keep it open as you develop (so you can try code as you think of it). The instant feedback of a REPL is priceless in learning.

Programming Challenge Sites

    You know, as a developing programmer one of my biggest challenges is finding ways to exercise new languages/skills/tools that I am learning. There's nothing worse than reading about some new language or paradigm and then thinking, okay, I get it but what now? This is where programming challenge sites come in handy! They tend to provide small problems that can serve as an outlet for new skills and technologies as well as stretch your problem-solving abilities. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

1. Project Euler is a superior collection of mathematical programming challenges which grows progressively more difficult with each new problem. At this point there are 267248 members who have solved at least on problem on PE; however, some problems have as few as 100 solvers! PE is by far one of my favorite sites to turn to for programming challenges on my days off; also it's named after one of the mathematical greats, Leonhard Euler.

    2.  Usually, the StackExchange code golf site's member-provided problems are concerned with shortest code-length solutions (thus the "golf") but there are also a frequent slew of bizarre problems. This is such a cool site. IMHO, the feedback-oriented, well designed StackExchange engine works well in code golf form.

3. Rosalind is a biology programming challenge collection. It has a similar feel to Euler, except what it lacks in mathematical problems it makes up for in string manipulation. The challenges are fun, and more suited for beginners in programming (don't get me wrong, there are some really difficult ones!)

4. Dave Thomas' code katas are designed to challenge and insight the mind. Thomas, co-author of Pragmatic Programmer (that legendary book that us developers should all read) constructed a nice little set of though-provoking challenges, that will (if used properly) increase your critical thinking capacities.

5. Cyber-dojo is a set of team-oriented problems with a focus on TDD. It is meant to be a simplistic environment in which programmers are encouraged to focus on the solving; not the solution. It can be a great way to improve problem solving abilities, hone testing skills and expand your knowledge of new (or old) languages.