With our upcoming SharePoint 2007 deployment, I am contemplating whether or not I’d like to learn SharePoint development. I do not have any real development experience aside from some web development (HTML, CSS), and I don’t think my early years with BASIC or that one Visual Basic course I took in college count. I wondered whether it was too late in the game to learn programming.
As one should for any major life decisions (or minor), I consulted Google. I wondered, “Is it too late for me to learn programming?” This was an interesting query because Google’s query suggestions upon typing “is it too late for me to” thought I was asking “Is it too late for me to go to medical school?” or “Is it too late for me to become a doctor?” I have been watching House lately, so I did actually consider that as an option momentarily.
The wisdom of Google overwhelmingly answered, NO, it is not too late, and encouraged me to learn programming. “What should I start with?” I implored further. And the consensus was Python, favorite of XKCD. Certainly a worthy endeavor, but I wondered if I should be more SharePoint specific in my plan? After all, this calls for .NET development.
In general, the internets tell me that to be a SharePoint developer, you should know these things:
- Get your MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) – five exams on .NET (Visual Basic or C#), and XML services.
- Learn VB or C# .NET
- Also learn C++
- Understand the .NET framework
- Understand Web services, ADO.NET, XML/XSLT, and Windows/IIS security
- Understand SQL server
- Learn ASP .NET development and be a good .NET developer
- Learn the SharePoint object model
- Learn CAML (Collaborative Application Markup Language)
The start of this process, for a non-developer, is learning VB.NET or C#.NET (I’m going to start with C#). I can probably start at Microsoft’s Web Development for Beginners site.
Too bad I can’t download all this Matrix-style. 😦