Kath Pelletti
kp at sdsonline.net
Mon Jun 26 17:41:06 CDT 2006
Sounds like you have it figured out. Unfortunately in working for myself I need to be able to provide 'whole' solutions, although I agree that specialisation is good - and there are people I call who I know are v. good at their area of expertise. Do you work in a team where there are others who can do the front end stuff?
Kath
----- Original Message -----
From: artful at rogers.com
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] C#?
There are layers and layers and layers. Some people can write device drivers, some people can write middleware DLLs, some can write sprocs and some can write websites. I have never yet met someone who can do them all expertly. As Sartre might have phrased it in one of his few good moods, "That's why there are other people." I think I have a pretty good handle on my skill sets, and I will be the first to tell you not to look to me for device drivers or DLLs. Not my ball game. You want SQL and SQL performance, talk to me. That other stuff, your money is best invested elsewhere. If there is anything I've learned in 20 years in this business, it's that you cannot be good at everything. So I've narrowed it down to two narrow branches. You want database architecture or sprocs/udfs/etc., talk to me. I have even abandoned the Access development path, at which I once was pretty good, but an old man cannot spread himself so broadly. So where I once considered myself capable of five
things, I'm now down to two. I'm much better at them, but the gigs are few because I am less promiscuous.
I have never written a device driver, or a compiler, or a programming language. I wrote some libraries for developers and I wrote lots of apps in several front-end languages. Now I find that I've lost interest in the front end, I just regard it as an abstract space that should call the functions and sprocs that I write in the back end, which is either MS-SQL or MySQL. I leave it to creative people to design the pretty screens; I have no more interest in proving that your screens are prettier than mine. All I want to do now is deliver the data requested in the smallest number of seconds. I don't want to control the project, much less oversee all its aspects. My ambitions, I guess, have receded. I know how to do one thing well, and that's enough to pay the rent. Later for Famous, as it were. I just want to concentrate on how to investigate 50 million rows and find the four rows of interest in the shortest time possible. All the glitz I leave to someone else.
I am playing with c# but not because I consider myself a c# developer. The transition from vb was effortless (leave out the DIM and add semicolons, that's about it). But I don't want anyone to hire me to develop c#. You need bitchin' sprocs, I'm your guy. That's what I concentrate on. Not to say that I'm the best, but only that I aspire to be. Narrow focus, work hard, get better over time, that's it. Don't ask me for a compiler, or write the app that blows Google away. I'm not your boy for those gigs. But I can look at sprocs and udfs and figure out how to make them run more quickly. That's my self-defined narrow focus. And that's enough.
----- Original Message ----
From: Kath Pelletti <kp at sdsonline.net>
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 10:31:04 PM
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] C#?
I know what you mean about the mindset. I was given a big project to do this year and I started off really just converting the way I code in vba to vb.net. But I had a big 'what am I doing?' moment about a month ago and have now hired someone to design the OO architecture and I have to learn his mindset. It's quite illuminating. I am in the throws of learning it all now - object factories and class code generators etc etc.
But that feeling of being 'master of absolutely nothing' is truly bad when you have a commitment to the client and a deadline....aaargh.
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Barro
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] C#?
I migrated my vba skills from Access to classic ASP applications and at the
same time got into VB6 application programming but never really learned OOP
principles. Transitioning to VB.NET didn't help any to learn OOP principles
since it was just easy to continue programming in the same mindset.
I migrated to C# last year and could still make do with VB-style programming
to a certain extent but eventually learned the OOP way of developing
applications. Prior to learning vba though I had classic C experience (Turbo
C by Borland) so I already had the concept of C programming down.
The biggest learning curve will be migrating to OOP ways.
-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Kath Pelletti
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 6:10 PM
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] C#?
Hi Eric - yeah, I'm finding it a stretch to go from vba to vb.net. I will
now be working with 2 others who have a preference for C#. Just wondering
about diff. between leaping vba to vb.net as opposed to vba to C#.
Kath
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Barro
To: dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] C#?
VB to C# is not too much of a stretch but VBA to C# is a stretch.
-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Kath Pelletti
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 4:41 PM
To: AccessD VB List
Subject: [dba-VB] C#?
Has anyone made the change from vba to C#? Just wondering how big the
learning curve is......
______________________________________
Kath Pelletti
Software Design and Solutions Pty Ltd.
Ph: 9505-6714
Fax: 9505-6430
Email: KP at SDSOnline.net
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