Who, what, why?

Does anyone read the first blog post? I guess not, but I thought I'd set out my stall in case you've stumbled here.

Who?

I'm a developer from the UK, focused mainly on Microsoft technologies, and 2009 is my 11th year as an IT professional. I started out as web developer - HTML, ASP, CSS, etc. My first attempts at programming came after reading David Flannagan's Definitive Guide to JavaScript (O'Reilly). And yes, I know I'm talking about script rather than a "proper" language. Since 2003 I've done a lot less web - some SharePoint, some web services, a lot of XML for B2B and I'm currently working on a Windows based case management application for the firm of solicitors that I work for.

What?

OK, so the purpose of this blog is for me to record things that I learn on my travels through .Net. I started using Microsoft's NextGen framework in 2004 - 5 years and 2½ versions later I think I'm finally starting to get to grips with it!

Why?

Why "Lost in the Framework"? Well, the .Net Base Class Library and the Framework Class Library have thousands and thousands of classes. Even as an intermediate programmer it's very difficult to know exactly which method you should be using to achieve the desired results. And does it matter - that's another debate. Often you can find yourself resorting to "coding by intellisense" - that is, pressing "." and scrolling through the list of candidate class members looking for something appropriate. See Charles Petzold's talk: Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind? For that reason, the sheer overwhelming size of the programming environment, I've named this blog Lost In The Framework. I'm intending to leave snippets of knowledge along the way, like breadcrumbs, in the hope that one day I'll find a way back home!