Last Friday was my last day on a Java/J2EE project I've been on for the past year and a half. Next week I'll be starting a new contract at another company, this time doing .NET.
I'm excited about this opportunity as it should give me a chance to go much more in-depth into .NET than I've been able to do in my spare time on SharpReader. It doesn't mean I'm dropping Java for good or that I think .NET is better than Java or anything like that. Java and .NET are two similar yet different technologies that will both be around for a long time to come. I would like to be proficient in both.
With Java I'd like to think that I am - I've been using it for over 5 years now and know the important APIs, the security model, how ClassLoaders work, how to use introspection, etc. Servlets, JSPs and EJBs have few secrets left for me. I know Java's strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit / work around them.
I'm not even close to this level of understanding with .NET though. Sure, I feel comfortable working with C# and the .NET framework, and for things I don't know yet I usually know where to find the answers I'm looking for. But do I truly understand .NET?, am I "thinking in .NET"? Do I know all there is to know about the CLR, assemblies, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Remoting, etc.? No - or not yet anyway. But working full time with .NET should get me there a lot faster than just doing it in my spare time.
How about shapreader?
Last release was 3 months ago? Are you still working on it?
I'm a big fan, it would be a shame to lose this fine tool...
Regards.
Posted by ssn at October 6, 2003 4:16 AMYes I am still working on SharpReader and plan to release a new version some time this month - before the three month anniversary of the last release ;-)
Posted by Luke Hutteman at October 6, 2003 8:31 AMExcellent, please share your thoughts on how it is to work inside a .NET development group.
From what I know, it's usually staffed by "web-behind-the-ears" programmers, but please correct my impressions if I'm wrong. Also, let me know if you have any ex-VBers, a little insight on their coding style would be most helpful.
Posted by Carlos E. Perez at October 6, 2003 12:21 PMLuke,
If you haven't already done so...
To get in the mindset I'd recommend Essential .NET by Don Box [1] and Chris Sells's book, Windows Forms Programming in C# [2]. Other best of breeds are Ingo Rammer's book on .NET Remoting [3], Adam Nathan's book on COM Interop [4]. Finally, an authoratative book on .NET Security is .NET Framework Security [5].
[1] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201734117/
[2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321116208/
[3] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590590252/
[4] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067232170X/
[5] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067232184X/
Thanks for the book recommendations Kenneth - I'm currently reading "Essential ASP.NET" and "Pragmatic ADO.NET". Don's book is next on my list after I finish these... Chris Sells' book also looks like a winner, but since I won't be doing an winforms profesionally I think I'll focus on server-side books first...
Posted by Luke Hutteman at October 7, 2003 12:15 AM> From what I know, it's usually staffed by "web-behind-the-ears" programmers,
> but please correct my impressions if I'm wrong. Also, let me know if you have any
> ex-VBers, a little insight on their coding style would be most helpful.
How lame. What's so helpful in finding about their coding style?
No I don't plan to wait around for answer.
Is there a page where we can post feature requests? I'd love to be able to bookmark some pages so that they are never removed from the list (maybe just bookmarking the permalink).
Posted by R at October 15, 2003 6:37 AMR: I assume you're talking about SharpReader here - you can email feature requests to sharpreader@hutteman.com
Posted by Luke Hutteman at October 15, 2003 10:50 AM