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Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

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Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#41

Post by privong »

Yajirobe wrote: post #38
soapdog wrote: post #33

The best strategy in my opinion is to build something that aligns with some of your hobbies or favourite things. Do not attempt to "solve a problem" or "do generic exercises", build something that ties up with something you already enjoy. For example, if you're into some kind of sports, build a software that helps you keep track of it. If you like cooking, build a recipe tracker. You know the gist. By building someth…

What if anything I can come up with that aligns with my hobbies has already been done?

> What if anything I can come up with that aligns with my hobbies has already been done?

That depends on what your goal is. If your aim is to learn the programming language, code up that program/task/tool even if someone else has already done it.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#42

Post by okaram »

Yajirobe wrote: post #38
soapdog wrote: post #33

The best strategy in my opinion is to build something that aligns with some of your hobbies or favourite things. Do not attempt to "solve a problem" or "do generic exercises", build something that ties up with something you already enjoy. For example, if you're into some kind of sports, build a software that helps you keep track of it. If you like cooking, build a recipe tracker. You know the gist. By building someth…

What if anything I can come up with that aligns with my hobbies has already been done?

But it hasn't been done by you, in that language, right? Yoy are doing it mainly for learning.

Also, you will find you end up with a somewhat different feature set, get to fix what annoys you.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#43

Post by notapenny »

ungawatkt wrote: post #10

I have a "standard" project to work on for new languages, which has enough complexity to get me coding things idiomatically by the end, but since it's something I've done before I don't need to worry much about the topic at hand. The project is a hurricane modelling and visualization program, which is pretty specific to my experiences, but having that to riff on has been my way of learning scala, python, c#, and (soo…

I've used that approach for both front-end and back-end development as well and it works quite nicely. Its really useful to have something where you don't need to worry about any sort of design/what/how to build and can just focus on the actual language.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#44

Post by ranuzz »

If you are looking for inspiration try '500 Lines or Less' [0]. It includes in-depth analysis of projects at hand and implementation. These are manageable project with a clear goal so you will complete them for sure.

[0] https://aosabook.org/en/index.html https://github.com/aosabook/500lines

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#45

Post by b3morales »

I'm not sure whether you're looking for just an idea for a project or an actual walkthrough. But either way this index of "Build your own X" writeups should be useful: https://github.com/danistefanovic/build-your-own-x

Ideas include building a Git, shell, search engine, and of course compiler/programming language.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#46

Post by b3morales »

Yajirobe wrote: post #38
soapdog wrote: post #33

The best strategy in my opinion is to build something that aligns with some of your hobbies or favourite things. Do not attempt to "solve a problem" or "do generic exercises", build something that ties up with something you already enjoy. For example, if you're into some kind of sports, build a software that helps you keep track of it. If you like cooking, build a recipe tracker. You know the gist. By building someth…

What if anything I can come up with that aligns with my hobbies has already been done?

This is potentially a source of inspiration! Two simple options for example: your goal is to exactly reproduce the existing thing; or there are parts of it you don't like and want to improve on.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#47

Post by Tempest1981 »

mrmcsoftware wrote: post #9

I don't know if I would recommend it, but I've noticed that in the past, whenever I moved to a different type of computer/OS (Amiga, MS-DOS, Windows, etc.) or language (Java, Javascript, etc.), I ported my biorhythm program to the new system/language. It starts out simple - just strings, math, file/screen input/output, then progresses to graphical plotting of the biorhythm curves. It's a simple algorithm. Disclaimer,…

Mine was sunrise/sunset and phases of the moon. And more graphical: planet orbits, watching for alignments.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#48

Post by logbiscuitswave »

mikewarot wrote: post #5

Advent of code is an interesting set of challenges, with a generally rising set of complexity. There are 6 years worth of 25 challenges. https://adventofcode.com/

Another +1. These can be great ways to learn new languages. The later stages can be quite difficult but there’s so many years worth of challenges to mine from I can guarantee you won’t get bored even with the more basic problems.

If you get stuck on a solution chances are someone else has already solved it in your language of choice which can also be great for learning.

Re: Ask HN: Projects for learning a language?

#50

Post by brundolf »

Yajirobe wrote: post #38
soapdog wrote: post #33

The best strategy in my opinion is to build something that aligns with some of your hobbies or favourite things. Do not attempt to "solve a problem" or "do generic exercises", build something that ties up with something you already enjoy. For example, if you're into some kind of sports, build a software that helps you keep track of it. If you like cooking, build a recipe tracker. You know the gist. By building someth…

What if anything I can come up with that aligns with my hobbies has already been done?

You almost certainly will never do something novel while also learning a new language. And even beyond the learning phase: I've found that getting past this mental barrier of "whatever I build has to be useful" is essential to getting enjoyment out of side projects. Find it in yourself to enjoy the process for its own sake.
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