Coding Consistently
One thing I have learned from my time as a programmer is that it is fairly easy to pick up languages as long as you understand the fundamentals of programming itself, and have access to plenty of resource documents. Over the last few years I have successfully learned to code in different languages and markups such as Visual Basic, Bash, Python, Java, JavaScript, HTML & CSS (because they kind of go hand in hand now), and some dabbling in C++.
Regardless of what the language is, just like a spoken one, if you don’t use it for a while you will have issue trying to use it from a cold start. My example comes from when I picked up Python over the summer and had written my small application and had done some minor edits to other python apps. But that was 3 months ago. And for those 3 months all I have been writing in is JavaScript and nothing but.
Not programming in a specific language for even that short amount of time tends to put a dent in productivity because you haven’t been keeping it on the brain like it used to be. The specific language syntax doesn’t come as fluid as it used to until you break back into it.
One thing I have found helpful to prevent a full on brain-fart is to keep documentation on the languages accessible at all times be it in book form, pdf, printed sheets of random dictionaries of syntax and objects, or even bookmarks in your web browser to help pick back up easier. Also consider routinely doing some simple projects in languages you feel you should know better over others (like Python over Visual Basic for me.)
Above all things though, keep coding and don’t get lax about it or else you may lose the geek mind set. Or just need a big refresher course.
