How to learn new codebase thats in a new language?
i feel so lost and slow. i dont know how to learn this stuff. im naturally slower than others mentally. for example, i went to a board game night and it took me longer than other people to learn the rules. i feel slow like this very often. How can i learn php/hack quickly? do i just do tasks? do i skim through code other people wrote? is it better to look up every single syntax i dont know? or to just skim people’s code? i come from a javascript background. feeling overwhelmed.
How long has it been? Take a deep breath and remember that you didn't learn javascript overnight either. Do all the things you said and depending on how much you care, you can try making a simple project in php on the side
Pick up bugs and fix. Btw I wouldnt be able to be that enthusiastic if needed to learn the company specific tech stacks.
Currently learning C++ for first time on my new team. Definitely a learning curve. Natural to feel completely incompetent. But with a bit of consistent practice on the side, I’ve been feeling more confident and able to contribute over time. I still feel that I have a long way to go, but it’s all about getting a bit better than before each day.
Learning C++ is truly endless. Ive been hardcore c++ engineer for +10 years covering from 99 to 0X but I still feel I am just a half way through and the learning curve is like exponential.
Amazing.
Few things that works for me are - 1. Understand common use-cases or user stories. 2. Pick the one that you like or based on some other preference. 3. Start looking at the public interfaces of the chosen use-case & work down how its gets into the stack. 4. Lather-Rinse-Repeat this for all relevant use-cases to your job/team. Tools like Source Insight help a lot to navigate easily in the code base if you create a project. If code language is new, pick a good book on that language & everytime you come across something new, read about it the book. A good practice is to wisely choose the reference & stick to it. If the code doesn’t have comments, I usually add my own in my local checkout and ensure not to delete that branch till I am comfortable. For tricky stuff w/o comments, show your comments to experienced folks & validate your understanding occasionally. Hope this helps !!
Relax. Remind yourself you learn one story/bug at a time. Try to build something simple in Hack, like a blog or something for practice.
Use other's code to infer how to accomplish similar tasks. Build mental models using that information for future situations. Keep repeating this until someone asks you why you did something the way you did, or why X is more optimal than Y. Then actually start researching the language on your own and try to teach others your findings.
Perhaps you are not progressing fast with Hack because you perceive knowing it to be of little or no value? Go quickly through a definitive guide type of tutorial. That’s should not take more than a day or two. You need to know what the language offers first. Then the way I learn is by tapping into my design knowledge first and knowing what I want to accomplish I look things up. Having a trusted friend who is an expert and is willing to verify your work before, during, and after is invaluable too.
e) all of the above