Since getting into PANDAS and Python more generally, I’ve been thinking about getting more books about computer programming and learning more languages. Having learned most of the common data structures, functions, classes and other methods like overloading in several different languages, learning new ones really isn’t that much of a challenge.

I want to learn the “R” language next as I think that is an important one for data processing and visualization. I know 538 Politics uses “R” extensively for its models along with PANDAS and Plotty. I also want to learn more about Plotty, D3 charts and other ways to visualize data. If I don’t move the blog charts to D3, I certainly want to at least use the latest version of Chartjs with Zoom. I don’t see any books in the library on this but I bet there are many good videos and tutorials online.

Sometime this winter I want to also get the book I saw at the library on Java. I‘ve never had much of an interest in coding in Java but I think it would be a good language to learn, even though most Java apps with its virtual machine always seem slow and clunky. But I think learning it would make me a better developer.

I’d also like to learn more about GUI programming. I know a bit about the Qt API by writing code using PyQt with QGIS plugins. But I’ve never done a lot of GUI coding because I don’t have a lot of use for it. Yet, I think it’s a good skill to have as it really educates you on threads, slots and signals. Maybe Android programming too.

I have written my share of Applescript, Hypercard, PERL, PHP, C, C++, Javascript and Python over the years but there is a lot I don’t know. I’ve studied an dabbled a bit in Assembler, COBOL and FORTRAN. But I’m not a professional developer but I want to become more knowledgeable about coding, better understanding the core concepts. I’d also like to learn more about documenting, Github and better code practices.