How should I study programming languages?

Posted by gcc on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by gcc
Published on 2011-02-07T11:49:11Z Indexed on 2011/02/07 15:33 UTC
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I am a student of computer engineering. I have never done any programming before, and as you can understand, I don't know how to study it or how to make my own programs. My English is weak [edited for clarity - ed], and so if you don't like the choices I list, please feel free to provide others.

How should I study? How should I learn programming languages?

Study completely from a book.
Don't study from a book, just try writing code.
A mix of the two; study from a book, then try writing code.
Study half the book, then write the code by hand on paper.
Listed to the teacher, then try to solve general problems (those not from any specific chapter).

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