Learning new languages using Code Katas

Pragmatic programmer Dave Thomas talks about what he calls Code Kata in his blog. He argues that a programmer needs to practice on a regular basis to be a good programmer the same way as musicians or athletes do. (That is, to become good musicians and athletes, not good programmers. Duh. ;-)) Furthermore, Code Kata is a good training tool to learn Test-driven Development. Recently, I have found yet another application for Code Katas. I am currently learning C# (and the .NET platform in general), and have used Dave’s Code Katas to do that. I have found that they are excellent exercises to get to know the language, libraries, and the development environment in general. For some time now, I have spent half an hour every day on the Katas, which have shown to very fruitful.