Learning and knowing different languages
Knowing a couple of different languages as a new programmer is a really good thing to have knowledge of, and knowing which one to pick could be challenging but researching and reading about what language to learn next is better than what you think. So how will you choose your first or next language? Here’s a few steps you should take to help you find your next coding language!
Research and identifying
The first thing to do in either choosing your next language or first is to find the language you are wanting to learn or choose next. This sounds easy enough but you really have to think about how you’re going to approach learning this new language. You might be telling yourself, “Hey i want to learn Python!” but you have to think about other things as well. To choose your next language you have to research the language you want to approach and learn, and know what type of language it is, as well as what jobs the language does. No language is better than another, they all have their differences. You can choose a language by knowing how effective it is going to be when you start to program. You can also ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish in learning this new language, but researching can do so good and knowing what you’re getting into.
Types of languages
There are 3 types of languages out there: mechanical, assembly, and high level language. Identifying what language determines the end goal that you want to learn and what you’re looking for in a language to program what you want too. There’s specific things that one language can do that another language can’t do. You have to research and make a decision on what the language you learn will do and what your end goal of learning will be.
Programming Paradigm
The second step is taking a look at that language’s paradigm. What is a paradigm? A paradigm is a classification of programming languages based on their features. A programming language can have multiple paradigms or just one. A language with multiple paradigms is referred to as a multi-paradigm language. Here’s a list of paradigms a language could be, below. When choosing a programming paradigm I like to choose the paradigm I’m most comfortable with. For instance, for me I prefer languages that contain the functional or object-oriented paradigms. There are other strategies to picking out the paradigm that best suit your situation, but for me I prefer to choose the language that has the paradigm I’m most fluent in. Some of the Paradigms are; functional, logical, mathematical, modular, object-oriented, and procedural.
Learning and using the language
Now that you know what language you want to get into and learn there’s a couple steps to take to get ready! Researching and knowing what websites to google to learn a new language is a priority and it will be the most helpful thing that you can do in the learning process of getting to learn. The process of getting to know your language can be easy at the beginning but you will have your ups and downs while trying to figure out a couple things. You might get stuck and want to give up at some points but it’s better to reach out and get help from someone that has a good view and knowledge of the language that you are trying to learn. Honestly, sometimes it can feel like if you’re actually trying to learn an actual verbal language like spanish, german, russian, or japanese.
Verbal languages are more complex when it comes to learning a new one but with programming languages this is very simple. And with the help of a certain tool, documentation, this could become even more simple. Since you already know how to do something, you just need to know how to say it, syntactically, the syntax on how to do it in this new language. The documentation could be really useful now. Just simply search what you want to do, and you’ll get the syntax on how to do it from the documentation.
