You've described our environment to a "T". Open environment with tables. We sit across from one another so it always looks like someone is peeping at you over their monitor. Plus, the constant talking between the guy on my right and his friend (who he got hired) on my left. Thankfully I can work from home most of the time. But if I was required to be in the office there is no way I could get any real work done.
C# is a .NET language (as well as VisualBasic and F#). If you're interested in web development then ASP.NET MVC is what you should study. For desktop apps go WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation).
Just go download Visual Studio. The free version is good enough. C# compiles into .NET IL byte-code.
C# was developed by Microsoft for use in .NET, so if you start to learn C#, you'll almost definitely be doing it within the context of the .NET framework.
I got the book you recommended for ASP.NET MVC. Pretty good stuff. It was my first programming book (I've done on-line stuff like what I linked for noodle, but never a book). I think I'm about ready to start my site. I'll keep ya'll posted.
Nice thanks. I used to write POST at work too which was all c++ so I do have some oop knowledge. Could use some lessons though.
Sometimes I feel like the benefit of a group switching to a more agile process is that it stops developers from fucking off too much. "Oh your 2 month task is now broken up into 3 day sprints where you announce what you're going to be working on in a standing meeting and then have to not show up empty handed in three days or look foolish and now all of a sudden progress is being made."
We do sprints but we don't always release what we've accomplished. So while everybody is working on a sprint, they aren't always working on a piece that's going to be in the next release, or if it is part of it it'll be dead code that's not accessible via the UI if it isn't complete. We don't follow Agile to a T though, we generally follow it as a guideline but if it isn't going to work for what we're doing we do what works.
Our product owner is pretty knowledgeable, but our BA is kinda clueless. And, like I mentioned before, none of the developers or testers truly understand the domain so requirements that come out of discovery end up being ambiguous and incomplete. And, to top it off, my particular team is comprised of junior developers. They wouldn't personally categorize themselves as such, but I can tell their OOP skills are minimal.
As someone who is 50/50 Management/Technical ("Architect" Level Technical lead at a very well known company...) I've seen it both sides. I'd honestly love to see many managers and technical people fired. I can name approximately zero times where I have seen someone let go outside of gross negligence.
