This article fails to notice the primary problem with people learning a programming <i>language</i>.<p>Just as with a real <i>language</i> you learn the highest amount of material by absorbing explanations and expressions by qualified users of the <i>language</i>; not by immediately trying to form sentences as soon as you know 5 words.<p>A user of a <i>language</i> only becomed a skilled user when their mind contains a large enough corpus of absorbed expressions to imitate and combine.<p>IOW: Yes, the newbie does need to read the manual first. And after that some working code. (Though admittedly many manuals are crap and recommending a good, useful and fitting manual is a skill in itself that is lacking in many professionals.)