👩‍💻 Learn a New Programming Language in Just One Week!

Well, well, well. You may think the title of my post is clickbait….but it isn’t. Here’s how I learned a new programming language in just one week and created a project with it! This was an assignment I did during one week of Code Chrysalis’ immersive coding bootcamp.

Pick a new to you language and let this post be a guide. I chose Ruby. For the purpose of this article, I’ll be referencing Ruby, but replace it with whatever language you’re learning. Okay, are you ready? Let’s get learning!

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

☝️ First things first…

We’re going to take this step-by-step. The very first thing I did was search “Ruby koans”. What are koans? A koan is originally a concept from Zen Buddhism that involves testing a student’s progress and understanding. In programming, koans are a way of challenging our perception of a programming language and testing our ability to work with it.

After you search for “Ruby koans”, find a suitable link with a step-by-step guide introducing you to the language. I used this website’s Ruby koans.

✋ But wait!

Okay, before we dive headfirst into learning a new programming language we need to make sure it’s installed on our computer. Go do that! Is Ruby installed on your computer? Yes? Continue reading!

This language….what’s the best version for me?

This is definitely a question you should ask yourself. Some programming languages are splintered. This means you’ll need to do some research and pick the specific version of this language that you want to work with.

📝 Initial to-do list

• What is the language’s package manager? RubyGems
• Is there an online sandbox for your language? repl.it, Ruby Fiddle
• What IDE is recommended for this language? Atom, VS Code, VIM
• What about testing suites? TestUnit, MiniTest, Rspec
• Is there a debugger? simple: IRB (Interactive Ruby); robust: Pry

Photo by Neel on Unsplash

⌨️ Let’s get typing!

After you have gone through everything above, it’s now finally time to get typing. Start with the basics. Create some variables. Reassign them. Write some functions. Make some objects and lists. Remember, the faster you make mistakes, the faster you learn. Fail fast. Learn faster.

💡 Ruby ProTips:

• File naming: snake_case_file_naming.rb
• Test file naming: snake_case_file_naming_test.rb
• Terminal command: gem install <library_name_here>

🤓 Even More Research

Great job so far! We’re familiar with the basics of Ruby. Let’s expand our knowledge even further. What frameworks and libraries are out there?

🖼 Popular Ruby Frameworks

• Ruby on Rails
• Hanami
• Sinatra
• Padrino
• Cuba

📚 Popular Ruby Libraries

• Byebug
• ElasticSearch
• Minimagick
• Capybara
• HTTPClient

📰 Ruby in the News

• Salary of Ruby developers

💭 Final thoughts

I hope this article was helpful. Learning a new language is daunting. But, if you break things down into small tasks the challenge becomes much easier. What language did you learn?

Thanks for reading! My name is Halee Pagel (rhymes with Cali Bagel) and I’m a software engineer in Tokyo, Japan. You can find me on twitter which I mostly use for liking tech memes and MLB updates. ✌️