The hardest part of learning a new language...

For me the hardest part of learning a new language is figuring out what problem to try and solve. All of the books start with the "Hello World" examples, which are fine, but they really don't teach much more than the syntax of the language.
It's harder to find a problem that requires the specific characteristics of a language that differentiate that language from any other.

I've started looking over the RubyQuiz web site which has a series of programming challenges with solutions from different people. It's been interesting to read the problems, try to solve them, and compare what I come up with to what other people have done.

I might post one of my solutions to this blog if it seems interesting enough. I'm working on a problem now involving 'Happy Numbers', which involves a lot of math. I like the math problems, they remind me of the Martin Gardner's old Mathematical Recreations columns from Scientific American, I subscribed to that magazine back then just for those columns!