Lately I have found myself back in the learning spirit. It is a much needed change from the bit of a block I have been in for a while. I stumbled upon Groovy Koans and am hooked.
If you have never experienced any koans (there are koans for a lot of other programming languages) it is an interesting way to learn a new language. Each koan is designed to teach you a different aspect of the language by having you modify code in unit tests to get them to pass. As you pass through each koan the topics get more advanced.
So far I have only worked through the first 3 or 4 Groovy koans, but I am picking up things pretty quickly. The more I work and learn about Groovy I like how simplified it is compared to Java. I am really loving the auto properties and that it already has closures. I can't wait to get into some of the more advanced topics in the later koans.
**Side Note: Groovy Koans utilize Gradle for building and running the tests so you can get a nice preview of how easy it is to use Gradle over Ant and Maven. I am thinking Gradle will become my new build tool.
