How to avoid confusing different languages?

Hi Joe! I have been (more seriously) programming for five years now and have experienced a variety of languages. I would say it is a mix of all! Definitely patience and practice in the languages you are frequenting most will make their syntax feel second nature. But with other languages or ones you have done in the past but are refreshing your memory, looking things up online is definitely a valid option. In one of my software engineering classes in college, we took the exam on our laptops and our professor told us we could use the internet if we wanted since when we're "real" software engineers, we will be able to look things up whenever.

The important thing is the semantics, and syntax can just be googled. Though the more comfortable with a language, the less you have to google; and the less you have to google, the more quickly stuff can get done. I hope you are having fun on your immersion into the programming world!

Hi Joe, I'll give you my two cents

1. Do many programmers stick with a couple languages to use and know them well?

Some yes, and some no. It's personal preference. It's certainly good to focus on one area to become good at, but I find it too boring to just stick to 3 or 4 languages. I like to continue to learn and diversify my sills through as many languages as I can. I think most try to do that as well.

1. Just plenty of time, patience & practice?

Yes, don't get frustrated or give up. If this were easy, it wouldn't be such an exciting and rewarding endeavor.

1. Is it not expected to know the syntax for each and researching is common?

You should have a solid understanding of the syntax of the major comments of the language you are using, and as you learn more, you'll develop patterns in your mind that will help you remember the syntax between many languages. Some job interviews might test you on code problems on the spot, so having a good understanding of the syntax is helpful, however having the documentation of the langauge(s) you are using open on your computer is highly recommended. I use the documentation all day every day to help me get the syntax correct the first time around. And I still make syntax errors.

Hi Joe,

I thought I must give my view given the past hour I have just had! As Kevin said syntax is everything, if you working in Swift/C variants the syntax is relatively similar, but it always helps to have a good documentation browser at hand to keep you on your toes (I use something called Dash by Kapelli, would highly recommend).

Personally I work mainly in C++ and JS and (now) dabble in Obj C and Swift. For the past hour I have been (nearly screaming) working in PHP and every 5 minutes I'm getting a syntax error of sorts as I'm realising I'm not doing something correctly, but that's part and parcel of the fun and pleasure of seeing your end product dazzling in front of you. As Kevin said don't give up, you have the best resource available in this day and age, Google! Most of the answers to my problems come by typing them into Google when the documentation of a platform becomes blurred lines after reading it for ages.

Like many people, and as Kevin said I too like to constantly learn something new, pushing myself. To this day I still have my first program that I wrote in C back in the early 2000s when i was a young teen and it always brings a smile to my face. I hope that everything goes well for you, and no mater how frustrated you get or think you may as well give up - we've all been there.... Sometimes daily!

Best of luck! Jayden