Sometimes I need to be a "nerd". This is one of those times.
When I came to AIA, my programming knowledge was very small, so it was only natural for me to set aside what I already knew and pick up and learn C# which my boss was using. I got the basics down, and have been able to pick up new items fairly quickly along the way. I've sort of made the challenge to myself that as I grow in my skills, I would try to bite off one or two new pieces of what .NET has to offer at a time, and not too much. It's worked out pretty well for me.
However, my latest find has been one of the most exciting.
Subsonic is an open-source tool that builds objects and classes off of your database, to give you the ability to do true object-oriented programming in code. (I realize that this last sentence makes no since to most of my readers!) In layman's terms, with Subsonic I am able to talk to my database in the same manner I talk to other pieces of code. Maybe this visual will help:
Here's my original code -
Here's my code with Subsonic -
Look at the difference... it's like 7 lines shorter. Subsonic makes my job as a developer so much quicker and more efficient! It's unreal what options I now have available to myself. And in the end, I become a better programmer through seeing how it does it's stuff as well.
And best of all, this is just one small piece of what this tool offers. There's a whole bunch of utilities I have not even touched yet.
So what does it all mean. It means I can begin to get more done, in less amount of time, and hopefully accomplish a handful of my goals in 2009 as a result. I am sure in the coming months, you'll here me reference this tool more.
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