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Is there an easy way for a programmer to learn other languages?

After you know the essentials of programming, it is useless to trudge through textbooks that teach you what loops are, why syntax is important, and how to arrange data fields.

Is there anything like a dictionary for languages that just tell key words, special functions, methods, and oddities of a language?

For example, Java -

declare integer – int
-floating point – float / double
-word string – String

Resources-
javax.swing.JOptionPane (Simple GUI)
java.text.DecimalFormat
etc, etc

Many of us can figure things out with minimal resources, and sometimes this method of learning is faster. Is there any resource that could just list out all the factors of a language that make it different from others?

If you have any info please help.
I am starting on Ruby on Rails and PHP, and I’d like to cut down the time to learn/decide which to use.
Reading two textbooks only to use one of the languages sounds like a waste of time.

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