#201 in Computers & technology books
Reddit mentions of Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages (Pragmatic Programmers)
Sentiment score: 11
Reddit mentions: 22
We found 22 Reddit mentions of Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages (Pragmatic Programmers). Here are the top ones.
or
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Specs:
| Height | 9.25 Inches |
| Length | 7.5 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Weight | 1.51237111732 Pounds |
| Width | 1.2 Inches |
Some great suggestions here around complimentary languages. Let me chime in on the tools. Depending on where you want your career to go deploying Ruby without Heroku wouldn't hurt at all.
I've made no assumption on what you already know so please don't feel like you need to know all of this but as Rubyist these are things I look for in candidate's that I hire :).
PS: I've not included Databases in all of this which I think is obvious to say is important when fleshing out a CV.
PPS: Two books I would recommend highly (can easily be read on holiday in the sun)
Both of these books are fairly light hearted, give you a grounded understanding of the core differences in languages and databases, assume your a programmer already and IMO are very interesting reads for someone that is keen to look at languages from different angles. Prolog == mind blown
Good Luck
You could try Learn Seven Languages in Seven Weeks. It attempts to teach 7 radically different languages/paradigms at the same time -- Clojure, Haskell, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, and Ruby. It sounds like he already knows Scala, and probably won't find Ruby too interesting given he already knows Python, but the other languages should hopefully be new.
Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X?ie=UTF8&keywords=pragmatic%20programmer&qid=1464727456&ref_=sr_1_7&s=books&sr=1-7
http://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Programmers-Challenges-Develop-Coding/dp/1680501224?ie=UTF8&keywords=pragmatic%20programmer&qid=1464727456&ref_=sr_1_5&s=books&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Thinking-Learning-Refactor-Programmers/dp/1934356050?ie=UTF8&keywords=pragmatic%20programmer&qid=1464727456&ref_=sr_1_4&s=books&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X?ie=UTF8&keywords=pragmatic%20programmer&qid=1464727456&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Logic-Design-Comprehensive-Farrell/dp/1285776712
I'm mainly looking for things they could do to shore up their resumé when comparing it to somebody coming out of a 4-year CS program someplace. They need to have projects to talk about, and github's a good place to put that. Making contributions to open source projects seems like a good way to build experience doing the sort of maintenance work that keeps business systems churning, and a good way to get some practical experience cutting code that they won't have from a 3-month bootcamp. It's also a way to get experience using source control, dealing with code reviews, etc. I totally agree that they should be building their own projects, but github also seems like a good way to present that part of their portfolio.
They should keep up to date, specifically, on developments in tools and technologies they're trying to get hired to use. There's no reason to expend effort tracking, say, Haskell, unless you really want to work with it, professionally, but, if your skillset is all webdev, it might behoove you to have a clue about, say, ES2017 and how much of it's actually supported and where.
There's no reason for a junior dev to be mastering languages or tools they're not actually going to be using, but a bootcamper is going to have pretty narrow exposure to programming paradigms outside their existing skillset. Rolling through something like Seven Languages in Seven Weeks as a project you spend an hour or two on each week would help broaden their foundation, and maybe expose them to some other ideas and programming paradigms. Likewise, a survey of, say, algorithms and data structures, if only to the point of being able to explain the difference between a queue and a stack, or an array and a linked list. This isn't because these are immediately useful skills, but because they're things I wouldn't expect a bootcamper to have picked up in bootcamp and they are things I'd expect a CS grad to know (if not necessarily know well), and the bootcamper is competing with the CS grad for the job.
For comparison, somebody in r/csharp asked what people actually expect from junior developers a while back. This was my answer to that question, which was bounded in terms of the language and technology stack.
Or just buy 7 languages in 7 :)
While you only need to learn the languages you're going to use, it can help to be familiar with how to read (and solve problems) languages of various lineages, structures, and dialects (e.g., C-like functional, imperative, etc.).
There are books (like this one) on the topic, and many CompSci programs include a 3rd or 4th year language survey course. I found that this course (and much later that book) helped me think about solutions more clearly, especially after having solved one problem across several languages.
Also, if you're at all interested in language design (or processing), having more mental models of programming languages can help immensely.
On the other hand, when I'm hiring I don't really care what language(s) you know, as long as it's clear you've done well with the ones you use (and how you talk about your opinions around them). If it's clear you actually know a number of languages, you'll get some bonus points.
If you know a language that you want to learn, go ahead and look for tutorials online (there really isn't the perfect beginners guide).
If you don't know/care for any specific language, I'd recommend the book 7 languages in 7 weeks to get started.
That way you can learn a few different language paradigms and find what suits you best.
I highly recommand that you not only go over the book and do all the examples, but ask yourself after each language: "What cool (small) thing could I build myself with it?".
And then browse the web for some more tutorials on that language.
You won't know any of these languages very well at the end, but you'll have a general overview and can then dive into any that you like.
If you are interested, you can also PM me and I'd offer some help (mostly chat-based explaining and pointing to resources, etc.).
I currently have a lot of spare time and know C#/Java/Php, generall HTML development and am always happy to support someone willing to code (most people only care for the result, but I believe coding to be an art itself worth more than that ;) ).
tl;dr find a language you like, look for online tutorials or books and just start learning
edit: also check our subreddits like /r/coding and /r/programming.
Neat interview question, I'd either love it or hate it depending on what they expected to get out of it. I do think it's a bit problematic because how programming languages are different usually has (among other things) straightforward technical answers, but asking why one is more popular or successful than another is usually better answered from a historical/political perspective than a technical one (often, anyway). Part of your job will be to narrow down what the interviewer is actually asking.
To learn more about different programming languages themselves, I've seen this book recommended highly before (on this sub) and have it on my reading list, though I haven't got to it myself yet. If you're into MOOC's then I can say that I surveyed this course and enjoyed it for the price (free).
For the "why thing x is popular" side I would recommend just googling around (or waiting on reddit) to familiarize yourself with the popular flame wars. Most everything you will read is straight up wrong (just wait around for people to talk about the performance of Java for the best example). It may sound terrible, but you don't need real answers, for an interview you just need something to talk about. The history of CS is still a tiny field, and I'd eat my shorts if an interviewer was actually well informed on the subject. Here is a classic essay on why C beat out Lisp historically, it's arguments tend to get recycled a lot for other topics as well (Java, OOP, etc) despite it basically being an opinion piece.
Not really related to mobile development, but he should still really enjoy these if he hasn't read them already:
I read this like you assume it will take longer to learn two or three languages than one, but this isn't necessarily true. It will take you longer to learn two languages to a professional level than one, but if you're starting from fresh then trying multiple languages has a lot of advantages. Every programming language has a different philosophy and emphasises different features, making some things harder or easier. If you only ever program in Java, there are things that are easy in say Ruby or Clojure it would never occur to you to try, because the language makes it so much harder. But if you only program in these two and not say C, you won't appreciate how the languages manage memory for you. The list is almost endless, but the more languages you're exposed to the more you deepen your understanding (and learn new tricks) by triangulation.
Realistically it takes a few years to get to a professional standard in programming, don't be afraid of spending a few months to get a good start. The book Seven Languages in Seven Weeks may interest you: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/193435659X – also there are Bitcoin implementations in most main languages, so once you can read a language you can use these to compare how they and how they're used in practice.
I'd read Seven Languages in Seven Weeks. It'll give you some insight into different languages. It'll make it easier for you to pick up new languages. Use the sites others have practiced to reinforce the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X
7 languages in 7 weeks
Really good book to learn about the different programming paradigms.
Happy to help!
>Did you stabilize it somehow with a gyro and arduino or was is literally just the receiver, transmitter and ESC?
Flight controller with built in gyros handled all the stabilization. FCs are really cool and you can have as many features as you like or virtually none at all. I used a CC3D, but like I said that was years ago and you'll probably find much better. Apparently some even have built-in RC receivers.
Every programmer hates their own code, unless they don't want to get any better at it. Finding one language and getting
good at itcomfortable with it is a good start, and it doesn't have to be c/c++. I started with perl, quickly switched to python, probably suck at both to this day.There's a lot to be said about learning libraries and their implementations rather than trying to learn a particular language.
I've also written java code that ended up in production and is still used. The only C++ code I've ever written was for arduino and other microcontrollers, which is loaded with tons of convenience features that have a tendency to hide the hard parts, like memory management and stuff, but you can still get at them.
There's a surfeit of free information out there, but if you want a short booklist I recommend these:
EDIT: and if I didn't mention it before, hackerspaces are an excellent resource. One near you will probably be full of smart people and they might even have the occasional class or workshop.
I'm going to agree with others and recommend that you not go with C++. The first programming class I ever took was in C++ and it very nearly made me give up on programming forever.
If you want to learn how to code "closer to the machine", go with C. If you want to learn something useful and fun, go with Python or Ruby. If you want to learn useful Windows-specific skills, go with C#. C is much simpler than C++ but still challenging compared to VB. Also, it's still widely used and probably will be used forever. Python and Ruby are just plain fun and make many tasks easy to do. They're also excellent general purpose languages to have in your tool belt. C# is great if you're coding on Windows and significantly easier than C++ (Java is an option too, it's very similar to C# but since you already know some VB, C# will probably be easier to pick up).
There are plenty of other languages you could try as well, at some point you'll want to dabble in a functional language just to see how wildly different that is from object oriented and procedural languages.
Actually, I just finished this book and it's a very cool way to get a quick idea of just how many options there are:
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X
Oh jeez, almost forgot, you'll definitely want to tinker around with some Javascript and do some client side web stuff (and node.js on the backend if that interests you).
That's not really a list of paradigms. If you're interested in seeing the breadth of programming paradigm options these days, by all means pick up this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537894778&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+languages+in+seven+weeks
It's nowhere near a course in all of the seven languages, but it gives you the flavour.
If I don't learn something new every four hours at my job, I'm probably posting to Reddit. It doesn't have to be a new language (but it could be).
I'm at work right now ( library is at home), but there's a few books I can recommend. there's no one great path though, it'll be "find a hole in knowledge, fill it, move forward until you find another hole in your knowledge".
First, learn a programming language, and master it. Then learn to abstract that. Use this book as a good way to abstract. You'll come to recognize two basic abstraction: first, every language does all the same things, in just a little different way. The book acts sort of as a Rosetta stone for comp sci. Second, some languages are better than others for some things, and for AI, none of that matters, just pure processing power. I started the project in c# ( very simple for prototyping and testing, not super efficient) , and then swapped to C++ when I started working the outcomes into a game world to see evolutionary behavior better ( using the unreal engine) .
Next,Hofstadter has two books worth reading, "I am a strange loop" and "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" - this ( combined with Kurzweil's "How to Create a Mind") will give you some of the more theoretical on neurology/computer cross over. read them both, even though it's 60% the same book. there's enough differences to make both worth while.
On the biology side, This book has some info on what it means to be "alive" which is a prerequisite for what it means to have "artificial intelligent life" this will likely lead you into genetic research and how DNA works - it's important, but not until you get there.
On the sociology / economic side, I can't think of one book that would be a great starting point. I will say that specifically understanding risk/reward principals and game theory are critical to development of any AI that goes beyond a linear regression model. Also look into OODA loops, it's a military term for "Observe, orient, decide, act"
For machine learning, there's no one better to teach it than Andrew Ng, the chief scientist at Baidu. His course at Stanford is recorded and free to take on Coursera. You can find it here
Saw your PM, but figured I'd post it here since you weren't the only person who pinged me on it :). Happy to answer any more questions, but i'm not online all that much so please be patient!
Take care and good luck!
Required reading for everyone
However, if you're looking for an actual physical book, I'm currently finding Seven Languages in Seven Weeks a very fun read. It may sound daunting, but it more focuses on the differences in languages and how it can help/hinder you, rather than cramming as much in as possible. Also, it's a nice guide that shows a lot without wasting valuable paper re-re-re-re-explaining what an int/char/string is.
My argument is the change is beneficial. And it is.
Atheism the word would be meaningless, but the belief system that atheism represents would still exist I chose to interpret what people mean when they say atheist to be representative of that belief system rather than not the other belief systems, which is natural, common and resonable.
I am a strong atheist, I believe that no god exists and I have a very sound argument for that. I do however believe that people (like you just have) commonly blend politics and religion to match and reinforce their own beliefs. Religion is not always organised, and it's organisation is not always bad. The dedication in this book gave me a feeling of remorse for taking such a hard line against religious people when it is such a personal matter.
What you think is religious hatred is the political organisation of vulnerable people who are religious. Not combining church and state is meant to protect religion from politics as well.
What the fuck is the pope doing to you? You fucking idiot. What is a puss bag deist and what kind of thing is that to bring up. Noone is reasonable other than you? You heinous arrogant cunt.
My argument doesn't prevent anyone from meeting, nor does it prevent people arguing against reproductive right activism or bullshit in schools. But you fail to see that that is not religion that is politics or the politicisation of religious people. Tell me how many vulnerable people can be incited to vote by politicising creationism, a fuck of a lot. Is it representative of religion as a whole? Is it fuck.
If you want to be a really stellar programmer, learning a lot of languages is a must. This book talks about it.
The book that a person should read which has most of the languages mentioned in this article is Seven Languages in Seven Weeks which teaches the basics in Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell
I also want to mention the book Ocaml for Scientists which is unfortanely mis-named in that it does not teach scientific programming but rather general purpose programming aimed at scientists who have trouble implementing good programming practices in whichever programming language they use. Strangely this book is not available on Amazon but only the author's website.