@tajoma

I taught myself C++, Javascript and Haskell out of physical books. So I can vouch that it works. Though, obviously, it depends on how good the book is. Learned a bunch of computer graphics/shader programming stuff that way, too. And some bioinformatics.

Ebooks are probably better than physical, since they're more likely to get updates. That's never stopped me from getting physical copies of things, though.

I liked https://learnyouahaskell.github.io/chapters.html - I think there are others in the series maybe, too, for other languages. I liked the C++ book, too, but it was... yegods, over a decade ago now, so I couldn't tell you what the title was. Javascript was that classic slim volume: "Javascript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford.

@tajoma

Both, kinda? I work front to back, but then have it on hand to look stuff up for a little while when trying to do stuff in that language.

Or depending on the book, I might keep it around for referencing in general, if it's a good reference. But while I'm still initially learning, actually trying to use the language to do stuff helps me figure out where the holes in my understanding are that I can go back and review with better context. So, yeah, using it as a reference is also part of learning from it.

Of course, doing the exercises also kind of is that. If there are any. And if they're any good. And if I can get myself to do them, which I can't always. 🙃