Recently, while describing to a friend why .NET is such a good development framework, I listed off the usual features. One of my favourites is that once you know C# you have the ability to write websites, desktop apps, phone apps, web-services, games, Silverlight apps, PowerShell etc. for little additional effort. You get all that power from only one language. Better yet, if C# is not for you, there are plenty of other languages to choose from.
This is great for developers, because if you want to make a move in your career you can work on a completely new type of project without having to forget your favourite language or learn everything from scratch.
But this got me wondering, is it really true?
Is it possible to switch over to a different flavour of .NET and just run with it; or find yourself lost in a maze of new features? Am I just repeating the babble heard from other developers without really checking up on them?
Last Christmas (while commuting on the bus to escape the snow) I read up on Microsoft’s hobbyist game development platform, XNA, and that didn't look so bad. Never got around to actually writing any XNA code though, so maybe now is the time. My only experience creating games is a text based football manager game from my C++ days. I have never made a visual game before, so if I am able to then anyone can.
So this is the plan. To create a small PC game, and achieve it within a reasonable timeframe, without it spiraling out of control into some sort of massively multiplayer tragedy. I don't intend to still be trying to finish when I'm sixty. I don't intend to show up for work in the morning with bloody eyes because I've been slaving all hours of the night. I don’t intend to have to study five books as thick as my head. I just want to see what can be achieved by a normal person in a few afternoons.
2 comments:
Hi dude. Great post!
What about the new Windows 8? Someone said everything is going to change! Is it true?
Yay, thanks Stefano!
There has been a lot of talk about JavaScript and HTML5 taking over, but I expect that most applications will continue to be made in traditional .NET. It seams that Mircosoft want to have just one operating system which can run on any platform, PC or phone. So they want every application to have support for touch, but how many people do you know who have touch screens on their PC? I expect that if touch did start to take off for PC then future versions of .NET would gain support for it rather than die off. Microsoft say on the BUILD homepage (www.buildwindows.com), "All while retaining the ability to use your existing apps". I don't see .NET going anywhere soon.
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