[aklug] Re: tip for learning a new language

My tip for learning a new language is simply by making something in the
langage, copying basic UNIX tools is a noble start, but ultimately the best
is by doing something that utilizes most of a language. my suggestion in an
academic setting, is to choose the task for the student, make it difficult
and see how far they take it. bonus props if it is
something immediately useful. like maybe a craigslist scraper, or in this
day and age some kind of visualization of realtime data.

However, after a few languages under your belt, I for one, first look over
all the syntax/keywords then try and figure out how it is different vs. the
other languages I know.

Farrin A. Reid

On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 2:23 AM, Christopher Howard <
christopher.howard@frigidcode.com> wrote:

> On 11/03/2012 11:05 PM, bryanm@acsalaska.net wrote:
> > This student has a suggestion for learning a new language:
> > reimplement unix utilities.
> >
> > http://www.rodrigoalvesvieira.com/copy-unix/
> >
> > Sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone agree/disagree?
> >
> > --
> > Bryan Medsker
> > bryanm@acsalaska.net
> >
> > ---------
> > To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
> > with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
> >
>
> The ideal has some appeal. Yet, I think it would be more ideal for
> enthusiastic student programmers to be spending time on creating new,
> cool stuff we can use. For example, I've seen that some pretty fancy
> games have come out of people trying to pick up pygames, or trying out
> Haskell skills recently learned in class.
>
> In the example given by the above link, the programmer implements the
> the "cat" program by reading from files and then outputting to stdio.
> Isn't that the sort of thing you would eventually be forced to learn
> about when making just about any kind of program?
>
> Now, if we get could a few of them /optimizing/ the existing standard
> libraries, that would be another story...
>
> --
> frigidcode.com
> indicium.us
>
>

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Received on Sun Nov 4 02:21:43 2012