So Notepad++ downloaded without a hitch, other than my super special gaming AV twigged a little until I let it through by name. Version is v6.6.3. I put the first screen that popped up below the fold for you veterans to look over. Looks like a routine recap of prior fixes. This is the one the Python page said to use and was supposedly preconfigged/defaulted correctly for those modules. BTW, project down the road: my new job has some perks. One being that getting MSFT cert is encouraged, they have labs to study, practice tests, and people who’ve taken lots of them willing to help. Is there a best cert to start with? I work mostly with the two latest EX server versions at work. I’m not sure if saying the exact names would be a DA violation or not — I’m so new at this!
But so far I like it, all that formal math seems to be helping some; at least the syntax for queries seems totally logical to me, but its definitely intimidating to some of my classmates. I actually solved a Sev A today, waited for the PTL’s to figure it out since I’m so new, but it turned out to be what I suspected. I also memorized the more useful cmdlets already and kicking around inside the servers seems to be coming to me fairly naturally … for an old guy. Thanks again for all your prior great pointers and enthusiasm!
Notepad++ v6.6.3 bug fixes:
1. Fix SaveAll command hanging issue while session snapshot is enabled.
2. Fix docking error messages displaying due to bad detection of windows version.
3. Fix restoring saved files as unsaved due to SaveAll bug in session snapshot mode.
4. Disable session snapshot while command line argument -nosession is used.
5. Fix bug that backup is not performed (in session snapshot mode) while view is switched from one to another.
6. Fix a bug in NppShell when trying to open many files.
Notepad++ v6.6.2 bug fixes:
1. Fix session snapshot enabled issue even “remember current session” option is disabled.
Notepad++ v6.6.1 bug fixes:
1. Fix Notepad++ hanging issue while saving a large file if session snapshot feature is on.
Notepad++ v6.6 new features and bug fixes:
1. Add session snapshot and periodic backup feature.
2. Fix RTL/LTR command making mirrored text bug.
3. Make auto-detect character encoding optional.
4. Apply DPI-aware on find & replace dialog tab and User define language dialog tab.
5. Add shell script parser for the function list.
6. Make backslash as an escape character optional in SQL.
Included plugins:
1. DSpellCheck v1.2.12
2. NppFTP 0.24.1
3. NppExport v0.2.8
4. Plugin Manager 1.0.8
5. Converter 3.0
6. Mime Tool 1.9
Notepad++ is a good tool. You might consider PSPad as well. I use both and switch as I feel the need. PSPad has the ability for the user to change the syntax highlighting as well as defining your own. I work in a mixed shop, and we still have mainframe apps using COBOL, PL/I, and JCL(!) one more thing PSPad has that is really handy at times and completely lacking from Notepad++: the ability to select, cut and paste in a column-wise mode.
But for real, honest-to-gosh development, you’re going to eventually need eclipse, which is free, cross-platform, and unbelievably robust. It has the ability to integrate local servers right in the IDE, and real-time compiles and builds. There are several distributions available, with tailored configurations for Java, asp, etc. Eclipse also accepts plug-ins, and about a bazillion are available for it.
Don’t neglect to browse the other plugins. There is a lot of fairly good stuff there.
notepad++ does column wise cut and paste. Just hold down the alt key and use the mouse. Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C & Ctrl-V all work as expected.
Oh, and you can define your own language and syntax highlighting in NP++ too. Plus there is a heap of language definition files here. http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/?title=User_Defined_Language_Files
I personally use netbeans for my serious codewriting. I’ve used eclipse too, and found that I like Netbeans better, though I can’t remember why. Anyway, if one of them doesn’t quite do it for you, you can check out the other.
Or any of a dozen other IDE’s, for that matter.
Netbeans is a nice, clean IDE, and actually a good place to start. It limits you strictly to java development, which may or may not be useful to Darksyde. If you are developing on an Apple platform, the Xcode IDE is astonishingly robust, with Netbeans’ level of simplicity and cleanliness. It’s also the platform of choice for developing Objective C (for iOS devices).
I think your first certification should be in TLA (three letter acronyms). Obviously you have a good mastery of the topic.
The Compare plugin is almost a requirement for any use of notepad++
The MTA is their basic developer cert, but it’s about half windows specific. I am working toward that one now myself, hoping to get SharePoint MCSD within the year (after 7 years of working with it I guess it’s about time)
Though here are some MSFT Python resources
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/develop/python/
http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/Python/
As you’ve been saying, don’t put yourself down for being the old guy in the class.
Hubby was 52 when he started the classwork for his PHD. His undergrad degrees were in biology and chemistry. He then switched to engineering and holds a masters in that, with a specialty in neural nets.
He went off on a whole new tangent with getting the PHD in computer science and had to ramp up a bit.
Like you, he often showed his younger classmates how it’s done.
He’ll be 57 by the time he finally finishes his dissertation and graduates this December.
The old dogs can definitely learn those new tricks!
Notepad++ is a very nice tool, but for serious development work it’s really hard to beat the breadth and depth of the Eclipse IDE. As an ex-IBMer, I’ve been using it ever since the first release (IBM donated the project to the open source community), and I’ve used it for Java development (server and client), Android, and PHP development for WordPress.
But no matter what you use, it’s amazing just how many powerful software development tools are available these days. Twenty years ago, there was virtually nothing unless you were willing to spend several hundred dollars a pop.
I’m a bit biased as someone with a more linux/unix -centric skillset. So take any advice with a grain of salt, it may not apply well to your situation.
Notepad++ updates on it’s own. You’ll get a prompt, run through an install (default options are fine), and then you’re back to coding.
I think the Microsoft certs are rather common. They always seemed quite costly to me though, especially considering a lot of the people I met who claimed to have one would ask my help fairly often, even at times for common tasks. But some jobs still seem to want it. If you have a specific specialty and it has a certification that would probably be a better way to go from what I have seen. In my personal experience, I have no degree and no certifications but once I got a couple years of experience and a nationally recognized name on my resume, I found the recruiters largely hunting me down. In some ways this is actually very silly, the bigger the name the smaller the niche they stick you in so your experience at a big corporation is likely to be specific but extremely limited in scope. I’m not sure if a windows skillset works the same way but from my understanding developers are just as in demand as my skillset if not moreso. Please run this by some other people before you make plans based on it though, others may have experience that is much more directly applicable to your situation. :)
About being an old guy… Don’t worry about it too much, really. I’ve had old guys run circles around me and younger people get superior airs then forget really basic things like hooking up disk drives when building a server. Mostly I think it’s just a form of insecurity. If you think about it for just a moment it’s fairly obvious that on average an older person with more experience is likely to perform better than a younger one with less experience in a knowledge-based field.
With regards to certs, I always counted MS certs as a negative when interviewing devs. There’s too much learning for the test, not for why. The ones with the certs tended to be unable to apply the knowledge to new situations.
I don’t do hard-coring programming but I love the End of Line (EOL) conversions so when I’m exporting something from Access to feed a script, I can easily convert it to something that plays nicely with unix. I also love the encoding conversions. Convert to utf-8 cleans up my data nicely across various character sets.
Mmm
I’d say the reliance upon certifications without requisite working knowledge should be seen as a negative. It does seem like you have introduced an opportunity for confirmation bias in your evaluations due to your expectations.