Life, it is full of twists and turns.
Being diverse can have its advantages, so from a coding perspective: Diversify.
For the past 20 to 30 years (give or take) I have been creating enterprise-wide applications, most with global usage. After a while you get into a rhythm, day in, day out, using the same tools... proficient as mentioned in another post. You do not need to look things up, they are stuck in your head... for the most part.
Along comes change.. big change
This year a new application was brought into the picture: SailPoint Identity IQ.
On the surface it is an Identity Management platform. It also provides a vast array of capabilities within its walls and is capable of providing a multitude of identity and access control functionality.
After numerous training classes over the last 18 months or so I have been slowly becoming more familiar with the applications inner workings.
The next phase is to attempt to go beyond the basic capabilities and make it provide all of the nuances required by the enterprise.
This is where the catch comes in..
To provide these capabilities requires changes on my part. As the image above indicates, it is not simply changing coding languages, it requires taking my entire arsenal of utilities, processes, procedures.. you name it.. and putting them all in a drawer, starting over from scratch.
I actually made a list..
| What | Before | After |
| IDE | Visual Studio | Eclipse |
| Language | C# | ava |
| DOM | html | xhtml |
| DOM | aspx | xhtml |
| DB | SQL Direct | AngularJS/MVC |
| API | SOAP | REST |
| Object | XML | JSON |
| Client-Side | JS | JS |
| WEB | IIS | Apache Tomcat |
Now I do not dislike change, I love it actually. Luckily, as 247coding.com hopefully indicates is that I enjoy working in multiple environments, methodologies, technologies, languages, etc.
Because I began medaling in Android coding, I had a fairly good grasp of the java concept.
Because I have played with Raspberry Pi development, being in a pseudo 'nix environment, much of the 'nix-ish things like bash shell, etc. made a little more sense.
Because I swapped back and forth between my daily C# environment and python, php, jscript, java, etc.. coding in java was not overly difficult and I could follow along with almost everything that was presented like creating plugins, rules, etc.
Because I initially started Android development using Eclipse, changing IDE's from Visual Studio to Eclipse was not a deal breaker.
Because I had worked with some REST, both here and other projects providing RESTful API's over SOAP was not overly difficult.
Because I had written XML based applications providing RSS, api consumption, etc.. both XML and JSON were fairly familiar to me.
Because I was already using quite a bit of javascript in my current day to day that was no change at all.
That being said, If you are planning to work in IT, don't sit idly by and stick to one platform because you never know when you have to shit-can it all and start over from scratch. :)
Due to the amount of changes I am still somewhat hesitant on setting timeframes due to the extra amount of effort it may take implement, but I do have a firm grasp on what is required to get the job done.. hopefully anyway.
The more you know.. the better.
