Software Engineering

How To Choose The Best Beginner Programming Language

If you're new to programming then without a doubt you've had to ask yourself what is the best beginner programming language so that you know where to focus your efforts. You're about to go invest all of this time and mental effort into learning a new skill, so of course you want to make sure you're starting off on the right track. I would be willing to bet you that I know what the number one language you're told to start with is after you do a bit of searching on the Internet. I'm here to tell you that the best beginner programming language is not what you think.

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March 6, 2023

CodeProject / Programming / Tips / Tutorial

Tasks, BackgroundWorkers, and Threads – Simple Comparisons for Concurrency

(This article is intended to be a spiritual successor to this previous entry, and now includes Tasks!) Even if you're new to C#, you've probably come across at least one of Tasks, Threads, or BackgroundWorkers. With a bit of additional time, it's likely you've seen all three in your journey. They're all ways to run concurrent code in C# and each has its own set of pros and cons. In this article, we will explore how each one operates at a high level. It's worth noting that in most modern .NET applications and libraries you'll see things converging to Tasks. The Approach I've gone ahead and created a test application that you can find here. Because this is in source control, it's possible/likely that it will diverge from what we see in this article, so I just wanted to offer…

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January 22, 2023

Perspective / Tips

FAQ: Starting Your Career in Software Development Pt2

You can find part one of this here! Applying for Software Development Jobs How do I stand out on an application? I think this is largely going to depend on where you're applying. Something to consider is that especially with large tech companies, they're getting thousands and thousands of resumes all the time. It can be really competitive to be able to even land an interview so sometimes if the caliber of other applicants is high, it can make it difficult to stand out. That's okay. We don't have control over others, but we do have control over ourselves! We can try a few different things to stand out and help you get started on your software development journey professionally. The following are things I personally would suggest and may not reflect the exact views of my employers (past, present,…

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June 20, 2021

Perspective / Tips

FAQ: Starting Your Career in Software Development Pt1

Navigating Post Secondary Education for Software Development Do you have any advice regarding university applications? For university, it's been so long since I've had to go through applications that I'm not sure I have really specific advice. I think it's important to know what schools have for prerequisites and really ensure you nail those down. In terms of which school to pick, that's certainly a personal choice. You'll have so many factors to consider including cost, what programs are offered, relocation, proximity to loved ones, etc... As a hiring manager, personally, I am less concerned with WHERE someone went to school versus what they could showcase about what they have learned. I'd also personally suggest checking out schools that offer internships since it's an excellent way to get real experience! This is something that worked really well for me since…

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June 9, 2021

CodeProject / Programming

Tests: A Quick Overview on Unit vs Functional Testing

Here's a super quick peek into unit tests compared to functional tests. And full disclaimer here is that depending on your circle of influence, these might be given slightly different names. Try not to dwell on that but instead the comparison and contrast presented! Unit Tests Coded tests that take a white-box visibility approach to exercising and asserting that written code, generally a specific function/method, works as it was designed. Pros: Generally very programmer-focused Very granular coverage (breaks can identify exact lines where an issue occurs) (Should) run extremely quickly Have very little test setup in ideal cases Provide full control (generally via ‘mocking’ dependencies) to exercise very specific logical paths Cons: Generally more challenging to convey coverage to other stakeholders By nature these are brittle and break with refactoring Require sets of design patterns to help ensure tests are…

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May 7, 2021

CodeProject / Programming / Progress Pulse / Unity3D

Ascending to the Next Level – RPG Dev Weekly #1

As I've been trying to get more YouTube content put together more steadily, one of the themes I'm interested in is doing some behind-the-scenes of the role playing game (RPG) I'm making with some friends in Unity3D. I've found that being able to work on an RPG outside of my regular day job is a really awesome way for me to keep up on my technical skills. I love coding, and the further along I move in my career as an engineering manager, the less time I actually spend writing code myself. I pride myself in being a technical engineering manager, so for me working on this RPG is a great outlet for creativity and practice. I mentioned this in my LinkedIn post here: Persisting Game Objects Across Maps In this video, I focus on one of the challenges the…

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May 2, 2021

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