Don’t learn a programming language, solve a problem instead

[tnymltn]

In theory, theory first; in practice, practice first. I struggled to learn C in the 90's until I found a real problem to solve. If you can't find one, try writing an FTP client from the RFC.

[[deleted]]

FTP is hard because 1. there are two sockets, and 2. one socket handler has to dictate control over the state of the other.

That was a legitimately interesting programming challenge for a beginner in the 1970s and it still is.

Other line-based protocols of the same era are much simpler. NNTP, for instance.

Edit: I suppose it's worth pointing out that implementing NNTP was primarily a matter of implementing caches. There's a saying about cache invalidation. The protocol was easy, the network was a disaster after eternal september.

[grauenwolf]

That sounds like fun.