I like the concept of 12in23 and 48in24.
One problem I keep running in to is that to do the challenges, you first need to understand some basics of the language. It would be nice to get recommended exercises before diving in to the challenge itself so you’re not completely lost doing the challenge.
It’s hard to figure out which of the other exercises will help you get familiar enough with the language to not get frustrated, without having to learn irrelevant concepts.
I think that’s the point of the challenge: it’s challenging. Part of the challenge is to get up-to speed in the language to be able to complete them. That’s one of the reasons why there are bronze/silver/gold levels: you can do a bit or a lot to get the weekly achievement. Getting gold means that over the course of the year, you’ll be exposed to many new languages.
Don’t forget, you can use the whole year to get the achievements, it’s not limited to the current week only.
The problem is that a lot of the suggested languages do not have a learning track and then just throw you in the deep without any suggested path forward.
How am I supposed to know which exercises will teach me the required lessons to continue forward?
Even some exercises marked as “easy” are difficult in a language you don’t understand, and they also don’t do a good job at explaining the strengths of the language.
I think the point of these exercises is to understand the different quirks and benefits of each language, and while I like the idea, the execution could be improved.
The languages that do have a learning track are a lot better in that regard.
Well, learning tracks are contributed by volunteers, and (from experience) they are a lot of work to get right.
I think, one of the things to do before attempting a solution in a totally unknown language is to solve it in one or two known languages of the same paradigm. So you get a feeling for what concepts you need to learn in the new language.
If the track does not have a learning track, where you can lookup the concepts directly in Exercism, it should be easy to find example code on the internet in the desired language using the concepts identified.
If the language’s paradigm is unknown to you as well, well, then that’s a real challenge. There is no “good” way to just hop into the middle of a language that follows ways of thinking you don’t know…