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adambard/learnxinyminutes-docs

12,251MarkdownAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Learn X in Y Minutes is a community collection of fast-read guides for programming languages, each teaching syntax through heavily commented working code in a single short session.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((learnxinyminutes))
    What it does
      Fast language guides
      Commented code format
      Multi-language coverage
    Content
      Popular languages
      Niche languages
      Translations
    Contributing
      Add new guide
      Translate existing
      Fix typos
    License
      CC Attribution-ShareAlike
      Contributors keep copyright
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Get a usable overview of an unfamiliar programming language in a single short reading session.

USE CASE 2

Contribute a new language guide or translation to help other developers learn faster.

USE CASE 3

Use the annotated code files as a quick syntax reference when switching between languages.

Tech stack

Markdown

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Reuse and adapt freely as long as you credit the author and share any derivative work under the same Creative Commons ShareAlike terms.

In plain English

This repository is the source content for the Learn X in Y Minutes website, a collection of quick-start guides for programming languages and tools. Each guide teaches a language by walking through commented, working code, so you learn by reading actual syntax rather than prose explanations. The format is deliberately fast: the goal is to give you a usable overview of a language in a short sitting, not a complete course. The content covers a range of programming languages, with the site describing itself as aiming to cover both popular ones and ones the authors think deserve more attention. Each document is a source code file with heavy inline comments, formatted so the comments carry the tutorial and the code itself demonstrates the concepts being described. The project is entirely community-driven. Anyone can contribute by copying the formatting of an existing file, writing a new language guide, or translating an existing one into another spoken language. Contributions of any size are welcome, from fixing a typo to adding a new article from scratch. Pull requests and issues can be filed at any time, and the repository maintainers ask that issues include a tag indicating which language or translation they concern. Contributors retain copyright over their own work. The content on each page is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which allows reuse and adaptation as long as credit is given and derivative work is shared under the same terms. The website version of these documents is at learnxinyminutes.com.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Based on the Learn X in Y Minutes format, write a commented code walkthrough that teaches Python list comprehensions in under 50 lines.
Prompt 2
I want to contribute a Learn X in Y Minutes guide for TypeScript, show me how the file should be structured and formatted.
Prompt 3
Using the learnxinyminutes-docs format, create a quick-start guide for the Lua programming language.
Prompt 4
Find the Learn X in Y Minutes guide for Rust and explain the borrow checker section in plain English.
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