Best Development Solution For a Development Apprentice Like Myself
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I would, when looking at fresh (green field) development of this nature, consider very, very strongly moving to neutral tooling rather than tooling that exists only for a single platform. C# and .NET are great tools, really powerful, and Visual Studio is now free and .NET is beginning to be ported to other platforms (like Mac OSX and Linux) but it is very Microsoft-centric unnecessarily and today, it is not neutral yet.
Moving to neutral tools means cost savings and protection against future licensing changes. It means greater flexibility and less technical debt. It is protection against future changes.
Tools to heavy consider include Python + Django, Ruby on Rails, Node.js (JavaScript) and even PHP. Also avoid SQL Server and look to PostgreSQL or even MariaDB instead.
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Ruby on Rails has really been the industry darling for a while now. Very powerful, tons of users out there, good tools available and very easy to rapidly make applications.
Although these days Node.js is getting a LOT of attention.
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Ruby, Node, Python... all good choices.
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Node.js is what is used to run MangoLassi. Spiceworks is built on Ruby on Rails.
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I tend to want to put all my eggs in one basket and learn all of this at the same time...backing up, I simply have to become pretty good at VBA...got another sheet today doing funky things...I've got to study VBA arrays and get a grasp on them too as most of these sheets have a lot of arrays and a ton of loops...
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VBA is so far removed from any other development.... it would be best to completely just consider that to be a different animal. VBA is not VB. There is no escaping VBA for Office automation, just how it is. But there is no real benefit to tying everything else that you do to that. Just going to make things horrible going forward.
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@scottalanmiller said:
VBA is so far removed from any other development.... it would be best to completely just consider that to be a different animal. VBA is not VB. There is no escaping VBA for Office automation, just how it is. But there is no real benefit to tying everything else that you do to that. Just going to make things horrible going forward.
I hear ya...there may be no escaping VBA...and I want to absorb all the training I can on it because it will also help me better understand the mounds of data that goes into these from our Metal Building Software...
But that said, I've got C# and Ruby on Rails on my list once this is done...
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I wouldn't work on C# and Ruby, I would just do one or the other. At least until you are pretty comfortable. Doing both will make things much harder.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I wouldn't work on C# and Ruby, I would just do one or the other. At least until you are pretty comfortable. Doing both will make things much harder.
Right...should have said C# is next...then Ruby...may take the rest of 2015 considering even getting up at 4:30 for more study time, I still don't have much study time...
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@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I wouldn't work on C# and Ruby, I would just do one or the other. At least until you are pretty comfortable. Doing both will make things much harder.
Right...should have said C# is next...then Ruby...may take the rest of 2015 considering even getting up at 4:30 for more study time, I still don't have much study time...
I meant until you are a professional developer not doing a role in IT, you should stick to just one.
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Start here for Ruby on Rails...
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I recommend using BitBucket and RubyMine too. BitBucket is my favourite hosted GIT repo. RubyMine is widely considered the best IDE for Ruby, although it is super powerful meaning that it takes a bit of work to get everything working properly.
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I should mention that it is $99 for RubyMine out of your own pocket. But a great investment if you are going to be writing a lot of Ruby.
For free, I would use Atom which can be downloaded from Github.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I wouldn't work on C# and Ruby, I would just do one or the other. At least until you are pretty comfortable. Doing both will make things much harder.
Right...should have said C# is next...then Ruby...may take the rest of 2015 considering even getting up at 4:30 for more study time, I still don't have much study time...
I meant until you are a professional developer not doing a role in IT, you should stick to just one.
Got it...
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Oh, I wont cram it in during my VBA push, but I'd love to brush up on scripting too...:)
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@garak0410 said:
Oh, I wont cram it in during my VBA push, but I'd love to brush up on scripting too...:)
Ruby is a scripting language.
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Well, here I am a year later and can honestly say, no progress on this at all. Just no time to learn to shift into being a 50/50 admin/developer. Between "day to day" at work and being involved in kids activities, family, church and community, it seems impossible to try to fill this 50/50 role they want of me.
Back to square one...95% of our "stuff" is still Excel and VBA. So, I've got to stay there for the time being. So,, can't look ahead at many of the helpful suggestions.
I document all I do in Spiceworks and provide my open and closed tickets to my manager weekly for our short Monday meeting. They trust me and often say they they like the fact they don't have to follow up on me since I do my job and provide updates.
But I've reached a point where I am going to have to admit my struggles with this. It isn't so much as learning this stuff is hard but the fact this VBA code is so messy and with very little comments and hard to to understand the logic.
On top of that...they now are asking about putting Excel data on web based options, including the cloud.
So this wasn't so much a rant or a call for help than it is sharing struggles we in SOLO IT shops face. I wouldn't trade this job right now for anything, but I also don't want to lose value in their eyes.
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The only thing I can think of is asking management for a dedicated 4 hours a week where you turn off your phone and just work on some study type thing. If the company values you knowing these things, and being able to support them internally, I don't know how else you are to get there.
Of course matching that with 4 of your own outside of work time (tell the wife and kids, sorry, I can't talk to you Tuesdays from 6 to 10 PM - period). This would be no different going back to school and the family knowing they have to give you up while you study.
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Like @Dashrender is referencing, see if your company will give you credit for hours spent studying development. My company does this and allows me to log it as Professional Development time. I usually have 90% of this time logged away from the office, at home, where I can sit and read/practice without interruption.
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@RamblingBiped said in Best Development Solution For a Development Apprentice Like Myself:
Like @Dashrender is referencing, see if your company will give you credit for hours spent studying development. My company does this and allows me to log it as Professional Development time. I usually have 90% of this time logged away from the office, at home, where I can sit and read/practice without interruption.
I'm not sure what this would really gain him?
My point was that hopefully he could get his office to give him some professional growth time, but he really needs to give himself professional growth time as well. It's not only up to the company to provide this, heck it's even more important when they aren't willing to keep you from atrophying, and gaining new skills for the next job.
