Maximum PC

After 5 years as a C#/ASP.NET Developer, I'm through. All projects that I do on the side will be using Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL or MongoDB.

No, don't even say ASP.NET MVC - once you go RoR, it's hard to go back.

Why Rails? Because it pays better...plus I can develop using my Macbook Pro. Seriously, those are my reasons! That and I want to explore new languages and paradigms. I'm sure my C# experience will come in handy and if all else fails, I'm sure my Sharepoint experience will come in handy in a consulting firm somewhere.

Can rails really pay that much better?

Maybe, but money is only one part of the equation.

Ruby on Rails has some awesome tools. I'm not sure how familiar you are, but look into rspec. It makes unit testing hilariously fun:



I love how Rails manages dependencies for me through the Gemfile (this is where you specify which gems or plugins you want, including specific versions), and you can bundle them all using commands such as:


Also, it utilizes SQLite3 and a really cool ORM through ActiveRecord. My Rails environment occupies a small footprint in my OS X setup, plus it has nifty gems like Redcloth, HAML and SASS (Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets).

Plus now that I'm contemplating going solo, Microsoft's not cheap. Visual Studio, MSDN, OS licensing, hardware...it's not cheap! I'm not trying to denounce MS or .NET, I love .NET and will never quit learning it. For now, I'm really digging those whole other paradigm; it's helping me see C# in a different light.

I don't worry about the cost of the MS tools. I worry about having the knowledge because my employer will pay for the tools From that perspective, .NET is probably more bank.

Have you used Resharper? It makes coding in .NET and Visual Studio a million times better.

hehehehe, true that! What do you use for learning? Been playing around with Innerworkings (http://www.innerworkings.com), looked at their Design patterns and performance. Not bad, it's not perfect, but it's not bad at all.



I'll look into it. Currently, my department is depleted of funds. We had a massive deploy of an EMR, so a lot of the funding went there. I'm also trying to make do with fewer items, so I'll evaluate it and consider how it fits in my world.

We host user group meetings monthly that brings in speakers on topics. I have to complete 40 hours of training a year so some of that time is spent there (This week I have 15 hours of SSRS, for example). I browse stackoverflow and pick up little toy projects. Fortunately my job gives me some wiggle room for experimenting (not a lot mind you). Recently I created my first Outlook Add-in with VSTO (learned about at a user group meeting).

Resharper is an amazing tool (won a license at a UGM). Enforces code standards and provides suggestions for easier way to do things. Helps keep everybody in a team in sync if you use Resharper to enforce standards. I find that even I change how I would name things on a day to day basis.