zunderdev 101

Alright, so. A lot of people have been asking me, "Hey. How do I learn how to do what you do?" And I keep saying that I'll write it all down. So here I go.

DISCLAIMER: I threw this together in like 30 minutes, so I'll probably add to it later.

First, let's talk a little about WHAT exactly I do. I'm what you call a "full stack developer". That means I write code on both the "back end" where data is processed and stored but also on the "front end" where users interact with the software directly. For back end development, I specialize in Microsoft's .NET technology, which means I do a LOT of my stuff in the C# language. On the front end, at least at work for a while, I've been working in Angular. This means I do HTML and CSS (with some Angular flair) for the actual interface elements, but I also work in TypeScript, which is a fancy language that makes JavaScript easier to work with (plus, it ends up becoming JavaScript anyway). So I thought I'd put together a list of some basic learning resources for this stuff.

So I'm a big fan of Pluralsight. They have a ton of great content about all kinds of topics, especially tech and development, and I've reviewed a lot of their courses.

For learning the C# language, I'd start with the C# Development Fundamentals path. There a lot of great content here for building a development foundation, including:

• An introduction to C# which includes getting started content, basics on program flow, and data types in C#.
• C# language features such as arrays/collections, records, extension methods, and LINQ, or Language-Integrated Query.
• Some applied concepts like exception/error handling, working with null values, and diving into object-oriented programming using C#.

To get more into .NET and a lot of the framework features, especially web technologies, check out the ASP.NET Core path. There are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced concepts that will help you learn both .NET and web standard technologies, and how they work together.

After learning a solid ASP.NET Core foundation, moving on to the API Development in ASP.NET Core path will start to teach you how web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces, or how software applications talk to each other) work in .NET, how you can build your own, and how you can do advanced development and testing of them.

Finally, to get started with front-end development, take a look at the Angular path. You'll learn a lot of the basics about setting up your Angular dev environment, setting up routing and services, and building/styling components.

Like I said, I'm sure I'll add to this later, but this should get you started on the kind of stuff that I do. Hope this helps.