Phil Japikse Q&A, Part 1: ASP.NET Core & Current Web Development Trends
While he’s always looking at and learning new things, Phil Japikse is a C# guy at heart.
That’s how he does what he does. In fact, he's a co-author of the best-selling book, "C# and the .NET 4.6 Framework." You even can see him speak at the next Visual Studio Live! event from September 26-29 in Anaheim, CA.
We caught up with Phil during a recent webcast to get some of his thoughts on the state of the development world, including ASP.NET Core and other current web development trends. (Click here to watch the webcast on-demand.)
"What are some of the most transformative trends going on in the development world today?"
We’ve got to call out the elephant in the room, which is the Internet of Things (IoT). They just opened a driving range here in Westchester that is IoT-enabled. There’s a huge fence all the way around, with virtual targets all the way around the fence. There are chips in the golf balls so it scores it for you. I wish I would have thought of that, because I saw the prices they charge to do that. And out west, there’s a 4-H club that has an IoT-enabled test farm, so the soil knows when it needs to be watered.
"What is your preferred language and why?"
I was going to answer English! I'm actually a C# person, but I have nothing against VB.NET. I was once hired to teach developers .NET, so I was building design patterns in VB.NET. The VP who hired me looked over my shoulder and asked, “What is that?” I told him it’s VB.NET. He said, “We don’t do VB here!” I was a consultant. I wasn’t going to argue, but I asked why. His answer was ludicrous. “Because all those smart people came from Java and they won’t do VB.”
So I became a C# person because that’s what the market dictated. It’s what the market is asking for, but it’s not because I think it’s better or worse than any other language out there. I've toyed with F#, but at the end of day my fallback is C#.
"There are languages and extensions and frameworks and all sorts of different approaches – how does a developer arrive at the best combination of solutions for his or her needs?"
This is probably not the answer people will like, but it comes down to seat time, just time doing it. You’ve got to know a number of frameworks. Andy Hunt in “The Pragmatic Programmer” talks about learning a new language every year. You just have to see what’s out there. If you look at the .NET world, there are so many frameworks popping up. You’ve just got to keep working at it. You don’t know if one is going to work until you’ve worked with it. And that takes time.
So what I say is try new things, but don’t do, “Hello world.” When I sit down to learn a new framework, I think about what are three hardest things to think of with data access. So I tried to get those to work. And if I can get those things to work, then Hello World becomes easy. So as you’re looking at new frameworks, pick something hard. I can write hello world in any language out there. That doesn’t mean I would recommend that particular framework.
"What new things are you working on and learning these days, and why?"
At the end of the day, I sling code. So right now I am working on all the .NET Core stuff and ASP.NET.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this Q&A, coming soon! In the meantime, be sure to follow Phil on Twitter (@skimedic) and read his blog by visiting http://www.skimedic.com/blog.
Posted by Lafe Low on 09/06/2016