I'm at the point with Flash/ActionScript where I feel like I can no longer move forward in learning, at least not while gaining that awesome feeling of "No shit?! That's how it's done?!"
The Adobe v. Apple stand off isn't helping this. But over all, I don't think the public opinion of Flash really matters. If Flash sticks it out, I can still build banner ads, video players and microsites until I'm blue in the face. It's just nice to expand my options.
So what to learn and how to learn it?
I've picked up books on the iPhone SDK/Cocoa, Android, PHP and C++. Yes, it's quite an ambitious step to branch off and become a "general developer" vs. a Flash Developer. But I think over all, it should help.
Problems, and where you come in..
The biggest issue I'm having with learning new languages and frameworks is that every book, online doc, etc... has these drawn-out examples that start off with "How Conditionals Work" and end with advanced topics like "Dealing with Web Services." I know how programming languages work, so I end up getting bored and skipping over pages, often overlooking some crucial information about the product. By the end, I'm finishing their example just to finish it and often forgetting what I had learned.
So how you finding ways to learn and ways to get around this general "I already know this..." mentality?
What resources are you using to learn new languages?
How did you get to the point where everything clicks?
I realize these are pretty general, but I'm curious, so I must ask.
5 Responses to “On Learning”
Hey,
I know wxactly what you are saying. Not only the first chapters are far too basic but the end are just “web services” while there are so many things to be taught.
I learn from O’Reilly ‘Cookbooks’ rather than general titles… try: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Adam-Trachtenberg/dp/0596101015/ref=pd_sim_b_6
My opinion is to understand what each language can give you in terms of general development. If you are learing C then you will learn some low level memory management. Even in a basic example that should be quite new to Flash developers so stick with that one.
I’m against the cookbooks, I don’t need a “recipe”, I need to know about the “ingredients”, later I figure out “how to mix then”.
I’ve been doing what you are doing too (learning another languages reading books) and until now the best books that I’ve read are exactly the ones that explain how and why things work, the most basic things are the ones that makes more difference… – You start to think on that language and not to translate things into that language…
I would go with the “Pro Books”.. if they say that it’s not for a beginner than you should be on a good spot – you already know how to develop..
Good luck!
Give ‘Clean Code’ by Robert C Martin a go. Really excellent book on good programming from really low level like code formatting to much higher level stuff like Unit Testing. It gets quite heavy but you will learn a lot from it. Don’t be put off by the fact it is Java – Most of it is just as applicable to As.
Subjects: Server-side programming would be a good complement to Flash programming. I get the feeling your a Mac person, but I found ASP.NET and MS SQL Server to be the best way to go. Much easier than PHP and MySQL.
Approach: Take a look at O’Reilly’s Head First series. The people who publish those books are the only ones I’ve found who understand that teaching is a completely separate skill.
Observation: You don’t find out how well you really know a language or a program until someone hires you to create something with it.
I just want to give my thumbs up on Pedr’s tip – ‘Clean Code’ by Robert C. Martin is a great book.
Taught me quite a lot about coding.
I’ve also had great pleasure reading ‘Beautiful Code’ by Oram & Wilson, ‘Coders at Work’ by Seibel and ‘Design Patterns’ by Freeman & Freeman.