0 comments Today I released a new Pluralsight course with my mate Scott Allen. It is my 15th play by play course and I am enormously proud of it and I absolutely think you should go watch it to learn about ASP.NET core, Azure resource templates, containers and docker services. It is the new way to release software for the web. However, that isn’t the main reason I am writing this post.
0 comments I have been building software projects for almost 20 years. Initially I was writing specs for the systems to be build and then testing that “I got what I ordered”. I then moved on to building my own websites (in PHP!), before tackling very large systems both in infrastructure and servicing 1000s of requests per second. One of the main focuses in all of these projects, once you got beyond the early prototypes, were reuse. Reuse of code, reuse of modules, reuse of services.
The premise was that by reusing parts of your project in multiple places you would eliminate bugs, reduce maintenance, improve efficiency and reduce overall development time. While all this in theory is true, the real world is always a different beast. In my experience though, the requirements were often slightly different, the features needed weren’t exactly the same, the input data varied or something else just didn’t align. It was never as simple as write once, reuse to infinity. A lot of the time we either ended up with bloated modules that catered to everything or we came up with a too complex architecture, only for the sake of reuse.
Reuse is still a challenge, but if you can get the right balance between common and unique code, it can really be worth it. When my good mate Duncan suggested we do a course on how to share code between Angular and Ionic, I was on board! In case you aren’t familiar with Ionic, it is a framework to create native mobile applications with JavaScript, HTML and CSS, in an architecture pattern familiar to Angular developers.
And here it finally is. We recorded the course back in August while at NDC Sydney, and it is full of great tips, architecture hints and guidance on getting your web code onto your native apps. We build a complete app both for web and mobile, and explain along the way what you should and shouldn’t share between the two platforms, how to share code using an npm package, how to deploy it and much more.
Go watch the trailer right now, and enjoy the full course at your leisure.
0 comments In 5 weeks a brand new type of technology and learning event called Pluralsight live takes place for the first time. It is a mix of learning, networking, and emerging trends, but in a way that connects learners, authors, managers and content owners. Here is my journey to Pluralsight Live.
Three and a bit years ago I attended my first Pluralsight Author summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was my first year as Pluralsight author with only two courses under my belt, and I was extremely excited to go and meet all the other authors. At the time there was about 400 authors, with maybe 15 in Australia. I wanted to go for a couple of reasons.
2 comments In December 2016 I was invited to speak on HoloLens development at a new conference, Code Europe, in Poland of all places. I have never been to Poland, and to be honest, initially I thought the first email was spam. But it wasn’t. I ended up doing 2 workshops and 4 talks in two cities in 3 days. It was a bit hectic. Before I go into details, check out this recap video from absolvent.pl, the company behind the event.
0 comments In January I was fortunate enough to present at NDC London. This is one of the absolute best developer events, and is the younger sibling of the best developer conference in the world, NDC Oslo. While I was there I recorded another Play by Play with my good mate and partner in crime, Troy Hunt.
0 comments You might be aware that Windows 10 has launched to the world and that Microsoft’s servers are being hammered from millions of people wanting to get the best Windows ever. Yes, I am biased because I have seen the development of the OS over the last 9 months, and I think Microsoft has got most things right (don’t get me started on setting default applications though).
With Windows 10 they are launching the Universal Windows Platform, allowing developers to target all Windows devices with a single app. This means you can target anything from phones to desktop to Xbox, even HoloLens with the same app.
I proposed to Pluralsight to do a Windows 10 webinar a few months back, and what do you know! Microsoft decided to launch Windows 10 on the date we had already set. It is a sign! I have done a few talks on the topic already, but I am hugely excited about Universal Apps and the promise they give, not the least the Universal App Bridges, which lets iOS and Android developers bring their code to the platform too.
The full length webinar is posted below for your enjoyment. Please post any questions in the comments below and I will answer each and every one of them.
5 comments While at the Pluralsight Author Summit 2015 in Salt Lake City, I caught up with Scott Allen. We had a chat about the methods people learn and how you might fail at one way, but succeed at method number 17. We also talked about the success Scott has had with Pluralsight, and how this has changed his life, if at all.
He is one of the friendliest and nicest people I know and he is always willing to share experiences and advice, just like in the interview below. Enjoy.
0 comments In conjunction with last year’s DDD Melbourne event, we were approached by MS Gooroo wanting to be a sponsor. We had never heard of them, but Jaq, Carl and Terence were keen to be involved and we gladly invited them to be part of our little developer event. It was a great success, and the guys at Gooroo (as it is now called, “MS’ is dropped) delivered a great presentation as well as sponsored great prizes.
After the event I was asked to be a part of the Gooroo Ambassador Program, a platform to write and publish articles. I happily accepted as the company is a great start-up and the things they do are awesome. I will from time to time publish articles on Gooroo Think and link to them from here as well.
