I’ve been an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) since 1991 and have created marketable software products using various flavors of “xBase” (dBase, FoxPro, Clipper) and eventually every version of Visual Basic since version 1.0. I’ve loved every one of those development tools (except perhaps VB 4) and built lots of great products, many that are still selling today.
Then I discovered Microsoft .Net
In spite of a decade of experience, I felt like I was starting all over again. The learning curve was steep and I actually had to “unlearn” a lot to understand totally new ways of doing common things. It’s hard to spend hours learning a new way of doing something when can “knock it out” in minutes the old way. I’ve been learning this technology for nearly five years and am still discovering uncharted territories every day.
Has it been worth it? You bet it has!
I can now build products that run on a variety of platforms and can be used online, offline and any time. I can do all of this in much less time and with much less code. This means that there is less to go wrong and it is easier to make changes. All this adds up to improved Quality and increased customer satisfaction.
Moving forward, the next decade promises dramatic returns on my investments. And with all the cool technology that Microsoft is planning, I just know it is going to be a lot of fun.
Those who know me will laugh when I say (again) “this is the best time to be a programmer”. – This time I really mean it!