This interview with Peter Shaw is part of a series of Q&A blog posts with our Succinctly series authors.
Why were you interested in working with Syncfusion to create e-books for the Succinctly series?
I’ve always been a programmer at heart. I love developing software, I love the challenge of chasing down that latest bug, of taming the hardware and making it do what I want it to, but more so I like sharing those findings and discoveries I make. I believe that information should be shared and not siloed away so that only certain people can view it. Everyone should be on a level playing field with the same opportunities to learn as everyone else.
Peter’s first graphing calculator
Are these e-books your only technical manuals? Do you have additional titles you would like to share with our developer community?
In terms of the format they are in, yes, however they are not the only technical writing that I’ve done, or indeed continue to do. I have my own personal blog, Shawty’s Live Space, and I write 4 articles per month on various things in the .NET ecosphere for Code Guru. Usually the posts are based heavily on things I have worked on in the preceding weeks.
In addition to my writing, I help run a large LinkedIn group, Lidnug, where I share my expertise with the developer community. As a Lidnug manager I speak around the world on various aspects of modern-day software development. I also spend time in places like Stack Overflow and Code Project answering questions and participating in community discussions.
Each title in the Succinctly series features a graphic of an outdated technology on the cover. What is your favorite outdated technology?
Telling you my favorite is easy: the Acorn range of home computers, specifically my BBC Model B Micro, which sadly I no longer have, and my Acorn Archimedes A5000. Both of these computers hold a place in my heart because without them I’d not be where I am today; some of the most important learning and discoveries I’ve made in my lifetime were made on one of or both of these computers.
The machine that started it all
What have you learned since writing these e-books and your most recent book on ReSharper?
I think a better question is what haven’t I learned. Up until the point when I started to write this book I considered myself a fairly advanced user of the product, but I knew I wouldn’t be doing due diligence if I didn’t dig in and explore some of the less used features available. Using ReSharper as a user and using ReSharper to write about it are two completely different things. I quickly realized in my day-to-day work with ReSharper that there was an enormous amount of functionality that I just wasn’t using, simply because I’d never taken the time to explore it.
Do you have another reference that you would recommend to people interested in ReSharper?
Absolutely, I would recommend the official JetBrains documentation. Oh, and don’t forget JetBrains TV on You Tube, and then there’s the JetBrains staff and their various blogs and You Tube pages. Oh, and mustn’t forget my colleague for this book, the book’s technical editor, Igal Tabachnik, the book is far better than my original draft because of his in-depth technical knowledge of ReSharper. Igal has written several plug-ins and add-on tools for ReSharper, including some commercial ones. Guys like him live and breathe products like ReSharper, and are a constant source of undiscovered things.