I have had my fingers on the keyboard – “nose to the grindstone” for the last two weeks and am loving it! I finally have a bit of a handle on Visual Studio/.NET/C# (C Sharp) and the other development tools being used in the current project for UCLA. I am a consultant-programmer for a department of UCLA …since 1991.

Programming has always involved a constant re-educating and adding of new skills but every so often things take what feels like a quantum leap. The learning curve this round has seemed particularly steep. I took a look at the timesheets I submit with my invoices for the last several months – a lot of research, testing, reading, i.e. not much coding. There were days when I struggled to get a few lines of code to work and when it did it was more dumb luck than knowing what I was doing.

Currently there is another programmer and our “boss” at UCLA that make up the team working on the prototype for the new version of software. I have not been alone in the struggle to understand the new paradigm. We use a product called “Go to Meeting” (GTM) to work together. GTM allows us to connect via the internet and any one of us can be the “presenter” – showing our screen to the others. GTM handles the phone conferencing also. This “show and tell” as well as a bit of team coding enabled us to “divide and conquer” – each of us dealing with a piece of the puzzle and then sharing what we learned. It has been fun, interesting, frustrating and annoying all at the same time but now that it is coming together – all worthwhile!

I have not suddenly become a .NET expert, but I have written some code in the last two weeks…code that I understand, that I know why it works! And just as we are close to having the prototype ready for the “boss” to demo to his “boss”… a new couple of tools are close to being released. Tools that will solve some problems: XAML (“zamel”) and Silverlight. I am NOT afraid! XAML particularly is the programmers’ answer to HTML. Silverlight brings it all together in .NET. It is an exciting time to be a programmer even given the constant feeling that there is too much to learn.

But, today – on this Friday – I am grateful for the last two weeks – for the opportunity to learn and do something which is fun, challenging and oh, pays the mortgage! I am also very grateful for the team I work with – nice people – professional, interesting, caring – a great team! Still… T.G.I.F. – a good day today and then the weekend to play.

Just in case your eyes have glazed over because you don’t know and don’t care what .NET or XAML is…Bob shares your sentiments…