Though every programming language has different features or paradigm, there’re common characteristics they share. For any new language you want to learn, focus on these five areas and you will learn it faster.
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Idioms
- Libraries
- Tools
Syntax and Semantics don’t need more elaboration I think. So let’s start from idioms. Idioms is common practices in a particular language. Some may prefer to use loop, some use recursive functions. It’s always important to know how the majority write the code.
Libraries is another important thing that you cannot neglect. It saves us a lot of work if we can use the library. File access, data structures are often already in libraries. You can check if suitable library exists before you code.
The last thing is about the language implementation. REPL (Read-eval-print loop), code formatter, etc. are powerful tools that make your job easier.
Credits to Dan Grossman, a professor at University of Washington.
Geek lady 