Entries Tagged as Learning
My Learning Agenda: What's on yours?
Posted by Paul Marcotte | Tags: Learning
I've had this list on my white board for a couple of months. It's time to make some space, so I'm posting this so I can look back and see how long it takes to achieve a modest degree of proficiency for each subject (by my own measure). Some of the subjects I have a beginner to intermediate knowledge of. I'm listing them here because I want to reach an expert level.Apache Ant
I've run a build.xml file, but I do not know a thing about how Ant works or how to leverage it for development. Sad, but true...
Subversion
I've used Subversion for a long time, but have always been petrified of using branches, tags and merging. I need to overcome that to reach the next level. Even if I start with a local repository first.
Unit Testing/TDD
I've made some headway in this department with CFCUnit, but my effort has been less that stellar. I'm radically changing my development work flow and this is one area that I definitely want to integrate without backsliding or excuses.
Regular Expressions
Oh, the shame. For I am lame when it comes to regex. It's just one of those things I've passed on learning in favour of something else.
Aspect-oriented Programming (AOP)
Like subversion, I'm familiar with ColdSpring, but mostly on a simple level. Over the next few months, I'm pretty serious about breaking out of the comfort zone and really learning how to harness the more powerful features ColdSpring has to offer.
Design Patterns
I grok a few patterns, but the majority of patterns, and OO concepts, are elusive to me. I might need to really focus on the basics before venturing into the pattern hinterland.
Flex
I have an AIR app in the HTML/Javascript category, but I have not sat down and worked at learning Flex. "I'll get to it", I keep telling myself. And with the demand for Flex developers these days, I'd be a damn fool not to add those skills to the arsenal sooner than later. ;)
Actionscript 3
Oh how I love and cherish my Essential Actionscript 2 book by Colin Moock. I know I'm going to dig working with AS3 as much, if not more. Why haven't I mastered it yet? Still searching for a good project that I can put a focused effort into.
jQuery
jQuery gets a lot of love and rightfully so. I've had a taste over the last few weeks and it can be an addictive.
UML
I have only scratched at UML, but I'd really like to be able to build UML into a standard part of my development process. Even if I only master class diagrams I'll be happy.
A programming language I don't know
Ruby and Python are high on the list. Regardless, I want to spend a little time working in a new language (static or dynamically typed) to improve my understanding of object oriented programming.
This agenda is subject to change. I haven't place a date or priority on any subject as it is likely that I'll focus on two or more at any given time. And it's entirely possible that I immerse myself deeply into one subject until I'm satisfied with my level of proficiency.Avoid the Instant Gratification Trap. Trust your Instinct and Ask Questions.
Posted by Paul Marcotte | Tags: ColdFusion , Learning
Ben Nadel's recent post, Code Assertively, really struck home for me today. In it, he discusses the use of non-assertive methods, like Evaluate() and IsDefined(). I definitely prefer to use StructKeyExists() over IsDefined() as a test for variable existence, but a large portion of my code for the scaffolds in my transfer based "generic admin" made liberal use of Evaluate(). I found it ironic that I could code "assertively" in one regard and be very dogmatic about it, but could also justify stooping to hacked solutions . At the time that I was implementing my Evaluate() hack, I had that uneasy feeling that there was a better way, but my desire to make it work urged me to forget best practices in favor of the instant gratification of being able to say "voila!". Looking back at the code for that series, there were three specific places where I could improve things. One, I knew how to fix. The other two I will have to thank Mark Mandel for hipping me to some things I had forgotten or wasn't even aware of...