Tips for experienced developers learning new languages?

Question

I'm a senior dev who's mostly programmed in C++ and Python, and I'm now looking at learning Rust. It's been about a decade since I learned a new language, and I'm wondering if anyone has tips beyond "read the docs, write lots of code."Has there been any formal research on new programming language acquisition? Does anyone have a specific "new language" process that works particularly well for them?

aszen · Accepted Answer

I personally deeply understand a new language only if I write the same code in two languages, one that I already know very well in your case c++ and the other I'm trying to learn, in your case that's rust. If i just learn from the docs and make new things I miss out on a ton of thinking on why things work the way they do in the new language versus the old one. Essentially it's sort of comparative language analysis

jamil7 · Answer

I don't have any fancy techniques for you, I pretty much always go here first https://learnxinyminutes.com, get a feel for the language and then try to build something small using the official docs.