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Approaching Your First Project in a New Language
The first time you have to jump a language for a new project is one of the most frightening parts of being a developer. I previously had to jump between languages for pet projects and solo projects, but I never had to start a large scale project from the ground up in a language I’d never touched before. It was definitely an intimidating prospect, but it was the only way to push forward in my career, so I pushed myself as hard as possible.
There may not be an objectively best or worst method to approaching a new language, but with the stress of the deadlines, I approached everything wrong at first. Our project was to be done in C#, which is arguably a Java dialect, and pretty much my least favorite style of languages. I decided to put down my preconceptions of the language and just go with the flow. I learned a lot about learning a language on the fly. It’s not easy, and it can be painful depending on the deadlines.
The traditional approach didn’t work for me. I had to relearn how to learn a language so I could come up to speed. Then I had to figure out ways to apply my new knowledge, and make sure that what I did was a help rather than a hindrance. Touching on some of the tangentials helped make the whole process more efficient. These techniques primarily apply if you have already learned a language, but can be useful for the first…
