About
Welcome to Random Code, a selection of random musings about the code I write.
I am a developer with a passion for writing perfect code and the understanding that while perfection is an admirable goal, pragmatism is what delivers results. This blog is a collection of interesting (at least I think so) concepts and code snippets that I stumble across on my (mostly) pragmatic journey towards mastering the art of software development.
I have been coding since the (very) late 90′s (unless you count writing BASIC on my father’s TRS-80), mostly working on web-based applications using Microsoft technologies. I taught myself ASP (classic) and enough SQL to get around Access while studying information systems and more or less fell into development on the Microsoft platform (I think I would have been a Java developer otherwise). My development career is neither particularly long, nor particularly varied;
- I worked for a small offshoot of Manchester Unity called IngenUnity for about 15 months (after deciding I lacked the sales expertise to run my own web development business). While at MU I extended my knowledge to VB6 and the joy of developing with MTS and COM+ and was introduced to SQL Server 7.0 / 2000.
- After learning all I could at MU and looking for further opportunities, I worked for ComNet (a business unit of Industrial Research Limited ) for about 9 months before being offered a role at Intergen.
- As a developer at Intergen I got to push my knowledge of .Net and c# to it’s limits, and with help from some very talented co-workers, extend those limits a long way out.
- 5 years after starting at Intergen, I moved on to my current role as the sole developer for a company that specialises in online surveying.
I have been developing ASP.NET applications for about 6 years, and MonoRail applications since late 2007. Currently I use .Net 2.0 / MonoRail / Windsor / NHibernate to deliver applications that focus in delivering questionnaires over the web and providing tools to analyse the results. I am also working hard at becoming test-driven, although I freely admit I sometimes lack the discipline to test first (especially when I get into the groove and fall back on old habits).
In the time since I have started reading blogs, I have “borrowed” from many in the community, hopefully someone, somewhere will find something useful in my ramblings so that I can give something back.
