How To Master a Programming Language II

So you’ve chosen a programming language that you want to learn, where do you start?

Learn the Environment

Depending on the type of language that you have chosen (interpreted vs. compiled) there may be several options available to you in choosing an editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Editors

Most programming languages can be written in your editor of choice. The preferred editor will include at a minimum syntax highlighting.

Some Text Editors Supporting Syntax Highlighting

• VIM (All Platforms)
• Notepad++ (Windows)
• TextMate (OS X)

Integrated Development Environment

If you want a full-featured editor, you may consider choosing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDEs will provide an interactive debugger, advanced syntax checking, integration with software configuration management (SCM) systems, etc. Sometimes learning all the features of the IDE is just a big of a task as learning a language.

Some Integrated Development Environments

• Visual Studio (C/C++, C#, Visual Basic, Others via Install)
• Eclipse (Java, Others via plug-ins)
• Netbeans (Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.)

Resolve Dependencies

Depending on the language you are learning, there may be additional dependencies that your development environment requires. Whether you are using an IDE or text editor you need to have the language interpreter or compiler installed (or else you won’t get very far).

Also, if you are developing web applications, you will need to have a web server or web application server installed and configured.

• Apache
• IIS
• Tomcat
• JBoss

Most IDEs will resolve these dependencies for you – however, you may also consider using a all-in-one local server environment.

• MAMP
• XAMPP

Basic Programming Tasks

After your programming environment is setup correctly (you may need to make some additional tweaks along the way), work through a “Hello World!” problem in the language of your choice. Make sure you can do the following:

• Check for Errors in Syntax
• Compile via GUI and Command Line (if your language supports this)
• Run your Program

At this point you should have basic command of your environment. As you work with it and get deeper into your language, you will become more familiar with the different features and options available to you.