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Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#111

Post by lioeters »

In the last few months, one really fun and educational side project has been creating/designing my own programming language.

It started by accident, by taking apart an existing mathematical expression evaluator, to learn how it works. This led to a deeper understanding of lexer/parser/interpreter, (pre/in/post)fix notations, stack machines..

Once I realized that what I was looking at was a kind of "virtual machine", I was hooked and continued by adding language features like variables, arrays, objects/dictionaries, functions.

The basics are now fairly complete, but the language doesn't "do anything" yet - it's in its own small isolated universe. Next I'm imagining how it will safely interface with the outside world - networking, file system, database, vector graphics, sounds.. What I want is something like a cross between BASIC, Lisp, and Hypercard.

Anyway, still not sure how practical it's going to be, but it's been a wonderful learning experience. It led me down through the history of computer science to re/learn the basics, making numerous discoveries of things I didn't know, getting a better overview of what languages exist(ed), what I like (or not) about their syntax or approaches to various aspects of programming. Creating this little hobby language has definitely helped me grow as a programmer.

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As for a non-tech related subject, studying music theory is endlessly fun and thought-provoking. It also comes down to creating one's own system/language.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#112

Post by no1youknowz »

yawaramin wrote: post #106
no1youknowz wrote: post #62

Outside of Tech, Japanese. Really love watching Anime in my down time. In the past I have watched well over 100+ series in Dub. Recently I was frustrated waiting for Dub for some later series and newer ones. Which lead me to watch Subs and I really dislike reading the text, especially when two characters are talking you have text on the top and bottom of the screen! Too much to read at once. Finally many times there…

Very cool. I've been wanting to learn a bit more Japanese for a long time now, too. What resources are you using to learn?

Take a look at my comments, 3rd post down will tell you what I have.

Also since I can't edit my original post. There's also:

[7]: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/5x6twj/tae_k...

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#113

Post by __initbrian__ »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #90

After a decade of wanting to learn to code while life got in the way, I'm actually doing more coding (mostly CSS styling for websites I run) and laying the groundwork for eventually learning a real programming language. In the spring, a developer from HN talked to me and recommended a free course and I also applied to an online coding school offering free tuition for the summer. In the process of applying, I learned…

You mentioned you were working in css. Here are some fun resources https://flexboxfroggy.com/ https://flukeout.github.io/

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#114

Post by Kye »

ydnaclementine wrote: post #57

Music producing with LMMS, mostly wanting to make jungle dnb sounding stuff I've installed FL studio a few times in the past but didn't get really far. This time I've decided, let's actually gain some understanding of theory and tools (like synths: https://youtu.be/atvtBE6t48M ) and make a little something just for fun. I'm using LMMS because now I'm on linux and don't want to deal with wine and FL studio. LMMS is ac…

Take a look at Helm. It's the closest thing to Serum's UX in the world of open source synths, and it runs on Linux.

https://tytel.org/helm/downloads/

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#116

Post by atemerev »

Physics — always wanted to understand how quantum mechanics works. I have a masters degree in CS, but it included almost no modern physics. After a year of fiddling with the Griffiths book and spending about $500 on other textbooks (less useful, though entertaining), I am definitely no expert, but I am starting to learn some things.

Erlang — because I love the actor model, but I only tried it with Scala/Akka. Time to try the original.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#117

Post by _8j50 »

Not a dev but I have been learning python more. I did a lot of things in the past with 2.7,now learning 3.x.

That aside,malware analysis. I've tried using Ghidra a bit but I've mostly been learning how to use procmon for dynamic analysis in windows and IDA to unpack and figure out your run of the mill windows malware.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#118

Post by justanothersys »

bladedtoys wrote: post #75
istoica wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a gradual path on learning Unity ? I mean, what is it ? A visual editor of 3D worlds, but not Blender / 3D Max, together with code editor and C# ? It looks more like Adobe/Macromedia Flash as IDE, used to like that very much back in the days, till flash died due to plugin need / proprietary / security. Would still prefer to ship an app in a single file, that progressively streams, just as SWF used to do. Now…

The closest analogy would be the Flash IDE. Art (3D, 2D, images) is made outside. So is any coding. It integrates nicely with visual studio and Blender (and Maya and Photoshop and the like) so the process is fairly seamless. For example, debugging works. Yet it produces native apps as well as WebGL. An infinity of tutorials exist in as many qualities so learning resources of every level are hyper abundant from gradua…

I built and published this 2D app in Unity with only prior web experience in a weekend: https://youtu.be/NTc6pf6OrI4

Haven’t touched Unity since... even though I’d love to make games. I’m partly afraid of future maintainability of my projects, but there is a potential future where 3D engines converge on a standard... maybe never.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#119

Post by contingencies »

trykondev wrote: post #86

I'm kind of cheating with this answer because it's not a specific piece of tech, but the thing that I'm really focused on learning right now is how to build out my business by hiring developers & learning how to properly manage them as they help contribute to some of my company's projects. Most of my development work has been solo, with occasional one-off help from contractors. But the number and scope of my projects…

Use the client's funds (shorten accounts receivable terms): x% up front, y% per month, or work ceases. Nobody should complain, if they do then make like a medium to large scale organization and cite 'policy'. Finally, defer all outbound payments (accounts payable/liabilities) by some fixed period, eg. one month. You can do this on the sly by setting a fixed date per month for payment and offsetting all contracts such that you gain 3+ weeks of hold time. Use your existing funds as a buffer in case of non-payment.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning in 2019?

#120

Post by etatoby »

1. Deep Learning. No immediate use for it, but I feel it's an important skill to know.

2. Powershell (on Linux.) I'm already proficient with the traditional shells, but I want to see if this is overall a better CLI and/or scripting environment than, say, Fish. (This was prompted by the recent post about a similar thing newly implemented in Rust.)

3. APL, getting back on it after a long time and potentially writing my own compiler and dialect, if I feel inspired.

4. Consolidating Japanese, mostly the spoken language, because I don't have the time nor will to memorize 1000s of characters. I'm already intermediate level, so at this point I mainly watch movies / shows every day, hoping some of the vocab will stick to my mind.

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