Is it a bad habit of learning one new programming language depends on existing familiar language ?

Question

I think some people will doing the same way when start learning a new programming language. (eg. Start Learning Ruby , but Already working with C# for years) They start by trying to make the result the same just use different programming language. like making the loop in array of ruby the same as in C#.

I really want to know that is it a bad habit when having this idea in mind when learning a new language ?

I think It will not easy to discover the advantages of the new language because it is already depends on the language we already knew.

Answer 1

I do hobby projects in .net and work with ASP at office. I type in .net code in ASP.

I do a little bit of php programming. I do the same thing with the ASP code at office : add ';' at the end.

Answer 2

I think it is common when first learning a new language to try to "transliterate" code from another-language-you-know-well into this new language. When first starting out, you don't yet have a complete mental model of the new language to work with, so you need to leverage your existing knowledge and try to shoehorn it into the new language.

Of course, often this leads to non-idiomatic code in the new language, as well generally not using the new language well to leverage its unique strengths (and avoid its unique weaknesses). So with time, you need to abandon "trying to do it the way you did in your old language". That method is a useful first stepping-stone to get started, but will impair you in the long run.

I think it's somewhat analogous to learning a new spoken language as an adult. At first, you 'translate' what you hear back into your mother tongue in order to understand, but this 'translating' will hurt you in the long run, and with practice and immersion you learn the new language well enough to skip the 'translation' step and to use and appreciate the idioms of the new language.

To sum up, I think it's ok to use this strategy when first getting started in a new language, but the sooner you can abandon it, the better.

Answer 3

The ';' is the biggest mistake I make when switching to another language. I tried my hand at a little rudimentary F# the other night and I was putting a ';' on every line and then coming back a few seconds later when Intellisense pointed it out to me or I noticed it didn't belong.

Answer 4

I don't think it's a bad habit, it's just what you do when you haven't familiarized yourself with the new idioms yet. Step 1 is to get code to run in that new language, Step 2 is to do it the 'correct' way.

The key to getting over this is to read a lot of source code in the language you're trying to learn, you'll learn the idioms there, and how people with years of experience solved simple problems.

Answer 5

"Real programmers can write a FORTRAN program in any language" :)

Yes, it may be seen as a bad habit, but don't worry about this. It's just a matter of time. The same is true about natural languages: until you learn idiomatic expressions, you "map" the constructs from your language and sound a bit weird. More you practice, more natural you become.