C#

So I’ve recently started messing with C#.  I think I like it.  It seems more robust than VB without the need to do absolutely everything that comes with C++.  Don’t get me wrong, I still like both languages.  It’s just that a drag and drop editor is a great and awesome thing.  There is no longer a need to spend six hours trying to do something ridiculously simple.  Plus, C++ has been jacked with so much in the last few years I can’t even seem to get a simple console program to compile anymore.

Anyways, I think with learning any language, the real goal is to find something to do with the language.  Learning something is much easier if you have a problem to solve.  So for work, I had a problem to solve and that facilitated learning C#.  I’ve got backups to that run here and there.  That works great, but really, if you aren’t sure your backups are running and up to date, then what good is the automated system?  So I needed a checks and balance system for the automation I put in. 

I ended up writing a console application that checks for the existence of all the backup files, and then checks the age of those files to see if they have been updated in the time frame I expect them to be updated in.  After all that is done, I send myself an email to let me know how the backup went.  Now, all I need to do is fix the formatting, and set it up as an automated Windows task.

While writing this post, I decided I only wanted a negative response.  Meaning, I only want to know about things I have to take action on.  So I changed the info to do just that.

The other thing I want to say is exercise caution with the MSDN forums.  Sometimes, they are quite useful.  Other times, they are a filled with snarky jerks trying to put people down.  It basically sounds like “you don’t know how to do that?  You’re so stupid!”.  I called out the last idiot that decided to do that.  So yeah, be prepared for jerks.  Don’t take it personal.  It’s a forum, and people on forums are naturally jerks. It’s well documented.