Resources

I've been getting questions lately about getting started with software development. I figured to save time, I'd list out some resources that I've used, as well as call out some other content creators in the software development space that I've come to trust.

Keep in mind that I've been living pretty exclusively in the Microsoft developer ecosystem. As I branch out into other languages and frameworks, I'll post what I find for those here too.

Note: None of these places are paying me for this. These are resources that have helped me.

Tools (FREE!)

• Visual Studio: If you're on a Mac or Linux, get Visual Studio Code. If you're on Windows, there's a free Community version of Visual Studio. Get that one.

Tutorials

I'll try to group these by experience level.

• C# and .NET

  • Learn C#: Presented and maintained by Microsoft, get started with guidance straight from the source.
  • C# For Beginners: Fantastic overview fo the basic concepts you'll use every day as a C# developer.

• Non .NET Front End

  • W3Schools: This place has tutorials for EVERYTHING. It's usually my first stop when I'm trying to hack together a web UI for something.
  • AstroJS documentation: The Build a Blog tutorial here is what I went through to build the site you're looking at right now.

Content Creators

• ME! You're already here!

  The rest of the people in this list organize their stuff FAR better than I do. Check 'em out!

• DevLeader
  I found this guy on TikTok awhile ago. I've been following him ever since. Super smart, and a top-shelf human to boot!
• Coding with Callie
  Callie's a frequent poster on LinkedIn, and has a popular web-based course on full-stack development.
• Coding Challenges by John Cricket
  Take your brain to the gym with John's coding challenges. Language agnostic, and rather advanced, but there's some good stuff in here!
• Jason Haley's Blog
  Jason's a Microsoft Azure MVP who's been doing a lot of work and writing about AI and Semantic Kernel. I've used a couple of his articles to jog my memory recently when I needed to integrate SK into a project. He's also a super nice guy, so give his content some eyeball time.

Articles & Videos

• A bit more advanced...

  • Escaping Appland: An older article that discusses some common problems we face when engineering Enterprise Level solutions in the "just make an app" world we find ourselves in. MUCH food for thought.
  • Youtube Playlist - Architecture and the IDesign Method: There's a lot of heady, heavy stuff in these videos. I've attended a couple of courses from IDesign, and they changed the way I approach software development.