Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#121

Post by minimaul » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 9:53 AM UTC

I have a f1 news aggregator that I rewrite every time I learn a new language/framework. Over the years it has had a web frontend and also a mobile app.

Has a backend that consumes RSS feeds and builds a database of articles, a REST API that exposes articles, a web frontend that shows them, an iOS frontend that shows them, and an android frontend that shows them.

I've rebuilt every part of it multiple times in many languages - it's a project with reasonably constrained scope so you can usually implement any part of it inside a day or two, but it solves a real problem - I use it day to day to keep up with F1!

edit: I think the scraper is currently a .NET core 6 console app, the REST API is I think python, the frontend is pure JS, the iOS app is swift+swiftui, etc. Lots of variation.

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#122

Post by taf2 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:16 AM UTC

Hello world first - then usually an http service… after that the sky’s the limit

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#123

Post by Kenneth21 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:21 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#124

Post by andyjohnson0 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:41 AM UTC

I try to something that is useful to me personally. This gives me just enough pressure to pursue it to some kind of completed state.

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#125

Post by jmiskovic » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:57 AM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #84

coverclock wrote: post #22

I'm an embedded/real-time/systems software developer. The realms I work in tend to be either the very small or the very large. When I wanted to learn Rust and Go, I coded the same application in both of them, one that I had previously coded in Java, C++, and C: I implemented the Generic Cell Rate Algorithm using a virtual scheduler. The GCRA is a traffic shaping algorithm that takes as parameters a desired peak rate,…

same embedded developer here, my problem is that daily job only needs c/c++ so my skill about python or js or golang is always weak -- after a while I forgot many of their details due to lack of serious need... my problem is: how to keep 3~4 language 'warm' at all times? write some code daily on each?

I found Python to be a great sidekick for embedded work. Parsing the captured logs, decoding memory sections, crafting specific hex sequences, building mock devices making desktop supporting tools... The syntax is different enough from C/C++ that I don't mix them up. Currently switching between 3 languages and I do notice a stray keyword from wrong language occasionally slips in.

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#126

Post by 0n34n7 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:59 AM UTC

I try to develop primitives for data structures and/or algorithms - starting with e.g a doubly linked list node / binary tree node… moving on to e.g. breadth first search implementation, etc.

Being older, for me this has the benefit of refreshing some compsci fundamentals while exploring the new language.

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#127

Post by tokamak-teapot » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 11:04 AM UTC

kimbernator wrote: post #25

I use https://exercism.org/ with new languages to get a grasp on syntax and see examples that other people have submitted. It's far from a true comprehension of the language, but it is really helpful to tackle problems that I've already done a few times in languages I am more familiar with to help relate concepts and highlight the differences.

I use it to get familiar with various concepts and idioms in languages I don’t know at all, and also for ones I feel comfortable with, where there are parts I’d like to understand and perhaps use in future. It’s incredible!

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#128

Post by omarhaneef » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 11:08 AM UTC

I search for the most up to date and clearly written tutorial I can find that seems highly rated or regarded and then just walk through it.

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#129

Post by jbarberu » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 11:10 AM UTC

I tend to try to work on a project that I have a personal need for. Currently I'm working on a budgeting application. My background is primarily in Desktop application development (C++ Qt, C# WPF, OpenGL, etc) in the games industry. For my budget application I chose to use Python as it's easy to do the annoying bits (string manipulation, filtering lists, serialize/deserialize json, xml, csv). I recently hit a point where I wanted to send some transactions to my wife for review and decided it would be useful if it was web based. Good time to learn some Django, which I did.

Having a young kid helps to keep me focused while I'm coding as I know my free time is very limited :)

Re: Ask HN: What do you code when learning a new language/framework?

#130

Post by tokamak-teapot » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 11:12 AM UTC

1. Find ‘map’, ‘filter’, ‘reduce’.

2. Implement ‘reduce’ from scratch.

3. Write a static site builder. This means I need to learn how to bring in libraries / packages, do some Markdown processing, do some templating.

4. Use a web app framework for the language to build a simple site with minimal interactivity, just to see how the language helps support the framework. I avoid client side (JavaScript) where possible as I don’t like working in that area.

5. Try building a couple of simple non-web GUIs. Buttons and lists, callbacks etc. Learning Swift meant doing quite a bit of this. Learning Python - just some messing around with PyQt to see if it’s fun and easy.

Not a dev, but used to be. These days I play with dev tools for fun, to spike stuff that might be good at work (mostly AWS based) and the occasional personal project.