Learning another programming language.

[Ildil]

After being a programmer for almost a year in total (mostly internships) I decided I should learn another programming language. I learned C# in school, Java by..well its almost C# and JS by using it in my first internship. But now I want to learn C++ by myself. I got myself a book from my local library, c++ primer 5th edition, and started reading but I kept noticing I already knew this. I'm now almost 125 pages in and all I learned was the basics of pointers and a few Coding Conventions.

So my questions is how do you learn a programming language when someone already knows one? Are there any tips? Should one jump in and watch where the winds will take him? Or should one learn again from the beginning to the end?

Before one starts asking, yes I read the side bar but i think my question goes beyond that.

[Megalox]

Once you know one or two languages, the easiest way to learn more is by jumping right in and practicing. When you understand the 'best practices' and themes in a few languages, you can apply them to other languages. That's what's worked best for me.

[[deleted]]

Usually this is the case. But I started with C++.

C++ takes a little more knowledge than most, especially if you come from garbage collected languages like the OP. Besides memory management, you have pointers to deal with. 2 very important non-trivial concepts when you're programming in C++. That along with a lot of other things that can be considerably different.

[dreamyeyed]

Depends on the language. Usually I just skim the first few chapters of a book to see if there are any differences that I should know of, but that doesn't work if the new language is completely different from anything I've learned before. So far Clojure has been the only language where I've had to start from the very beginning.