NorthWest Miscellanea

So far, my experience with dotnet is pretty much what I expected.

I knew I’d have to do a lot of Google searches for tips/insider tricks, existing .net framework bugs, etc.. which is fine.

I knew I’d have to start organizing a Firefox bookmark folder with all of the subtopics like DataBinding, XML, the GC, etc. so that I could have a permanent pointer to stuff I’ve found helpful on the net.
It’s all good, actually. I’d have to say my favorite thing about it, is OO-ness of the whole thing, everything being created from objects.

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I knew that the guys who wrote Pragmatic Programmer had an important point regarding having a source control system.

I mean, the number of times I can remember launching into a needless “treasure” hunt on why something suddenly stops working, or compiles, and it was because I left just one statement, just barely outside of a while loop, and it slipped right underneath it, so it was always being called. (and most of these times, was with Python, where I accidentally un-indented something :/ )
With source control (as you know), it’s “1,2,3″ — you just diff your current version with the last commit, and you see what you did. And you find it immediately

I finally got subversion installed today at home. (yes, my world is exciting)
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I’m on the major hunt for good information on the internet that I feel I need to add along with the collection of .NET books I already have.

I think there’s 3 main categories of information that I’ll regret later if I don’t organize now, and keep straight now, so I might as well as do it now.

1.) The first type of resource, are articles from experts in .NET, and those who write about other software topics concerning success in following a certain paradigm or process
I’ve bookmarked a bunch of quality articles, such as on CodeBetter.com, two among them are:

http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2006/08/13/148258.aspx

http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2006/06/20/146601.aspx

A little bit unrelated maybe, but the sooner also I get underway with installing and knowing how to use NUnit, Log4Net, and some kind of source control that works well with Visual C# Express Edition, the more troublefree and smooth my development and debugging experience will be.

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It seems like the .NET Framework is gaining momentum for me, as far as number of reasons to pursue and learn this.
I don’t know how long it will be until there are only Web-based applications out there, and a lot less Windows native apps, nonetheless, it seems like learning WinForms now exposes me to learning a lot about what .NET WEB Development is like (due to ability to use C# for ASP.net development ).

I think that my main focus in this blog will be moreso what is covered in books such as Pragmatic Programmer and Coder to Developer, and in general, Processes. But then again, I don’t know.
And the Design stage: How to go about with coming up with your classes.. I currently use Smartdraw currently to plan out things like what objects I need, and which ones send what objects events.
Yet another reason for .NET, and the last I’ll mention here, is the multi-language factor. I’m a fan of Python, and even though I’m really impressed with C#, it’s good to know I can still use Python if I chose.