- PHP - Exposure : Medium
I think I really like PHP. It seems like it's a good blend of a traditional programming language and a scripting language. I like that it allows for well designed software with OO constructs being first class citizens. I also like the flexibility that the scripting language aspect of PHP provides. I wish there were some kind of PHP compiler which helped catch silly typo-like issues before runtime, but I guess that's the price you pay for having the conveniences of PHP. I also think I would like having a good PHP debugger - currently I use code review and tracing as debugging aids. They've worked so far but I hope I never have to chase down something really nasty or subtle using these techniques. - Objective-C/Carbon/Cocoa - Exposure: Medium High
I previously wrote about my experience with programming for the Mac. For someone familiar with C and working with a runtime framework, this shouldn't be hard to grasp. I think I'm pretty comfortable with these technologies, but in many ways these are forced down your throat if you want to write software that runs on a Mac, and looks half decent. I dove deep into a few things related to these technologies (debugging crashes, file system events, application run loops, network support, deployment) and it was kinda fun and fulfilling to accomplish complex tasks with these technologies. - Bash Scripting - Exposure: Medium Low
To be productive in a Linux development environment, mastery of scripting is key. I know just enough to get me by, and I'm sure there's so much more I could do to improve. The rule of three seems to work well... if you do the same task three times, script it. And most times, you'll discover it's already been scripted by someone else or simpler still, exists as a built in set of commands. This seems like one of those endless holes of expertise that never ends. My goal is to deal with this as needed instead of being overly enthusiastic about becoming a crazy script monkey. - Javascript - Exposure: Low
I'm actually not too bummed about not having had to mess with more Javascript. I know people who just do the craziest things with Javascript and AJAX, but I'm not creative enough (or perhaps not motivated enough) to do anything more than the minimal. Unfortunately, a minimal website only works if you're Google or Craigslist. I haven't messed with Javascript for more than just a few hours, so I don't really have any strong opinions except that for someone who isn't familiar with scripting it takes some getting used to. Something like Script# might be an ideal transitionary tool though (I haven't played with it at all). - MySQL - Exposure: Medium Low
MySQL seems really slick. It feels great for simple database functionality (haven't really done anything too fancy with it) and supports some SQL syntax that comes in handy versus Microsoft SQL Server (insert ... on duplicate key update, create table if not exists, etc). PHP support for MySQL seems like a great integration win for both technologies. I haven't really dealt too much with administration and performance issues though, two areas which are super important to a great database solution, so I can't comment on those. - Python - Exposure: Low
I wrote a couple of python scripts to get some pretty powerful tasks done. I like that it has a bunch of libraries that enable you to write pretty fancy applications if you're so inclined (I'm not, and likely never will be). Like most scripting languages I'm amazed at how much can be accomplished in a few lines of code. Generally though, I don't like too much magic being done for me when I don't really understand what's happening and my experience with Python certainly made it seem very magical. Which is great for getting small tasks done, I guess. - Vim - Exposure: Medium High
This is a big once - even after almost two months of using this daily, I'm not nearly as comfortable with it as I was with the Visual Studio IDE, which makes me feel like I'm not being as productive as I can be. I think I learn one or two new tricks every day that make me wonder if there's anything Vim can't do. It's another one of those 'rabbit hole' technologies where experts can tune it to crazy levels. My approach is more along the lines of 'fix it when it annoys you' which seems to be working (slower than I would like, I admit). It certainly has the potentially to make me super productive once I get better with it, and that's making me stick with it. - Others - Exposure: Low to High
Technologies that aren't really 'new' for me but I was out of touch with for the last few years and have reconneced with recently:
- C
- Linux
- Win32
- Batch file scripting
- Makefiles
- gdb
So yea, as you might be able to tell, the last couple months have been insanely fun. I feel like an intern again (in more than one way ;-) )!
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