develop sat down and spoke to Oleg Kyrylchuk, a .NET Developer and Microsoft MVP.
Oleg creates content on Twitter and writes technical articles on his blog. We asked him some questions about his journey with .NET, being an MVP, and November’s .NET 6 release.
What is .NET?
.NET is a cross-platform and open-source framework primarily developed by Microsoft. With .NET, you can create any application - web, mobile, desktop, game, Internet of Things (IoT), etc. The main programming languages are C#, F#, and Visual Basic.
How does the .NET framework work?
To give a brief overview of how .NET works: your code is compiled into Intermediate Language (IL). A just-in-time (JIT) compiler translates IL into native code at execution time. Common Language Runtime (CLR) is a run-time environment that runs the code.
Why did you choose C# .NET?
I started my journey with programming when I was 15 in the IT STEP Academy. It's Ukraine's largest non-state educational institution specialising in professional computer education.
My first programming language was C++, which was fun, but it wasn't easy. I started with console applications, and then I was taught how to create desktop applications using WinAPI. It was a nightmare. We had to write a lot of non-intuitive code just to show the empty window.
When I learned about C# and WinForms, I fell in love with the language and framework. Since then, it has been my primary programming language.
What do you think of .NET 6?
I like it. .NET 6 has a lot of new features and improvements along with C#. Microsoft put a lot of work into the performance of the framework. The development is getting faster with many new helpers.
I like top-level statements, minimal API, file scoped namespaces, and global usings. You can focus more on the logic and worry less about boilerplate code. Entity Framework Core 6 has the most significant update ever in my opinion.
What do you think the future of .NET development looks like?
I'm not too fond of predictions. In my opinion, .NET is getting better and faster from version to version. The popularity is growing. The .NET team does a great job lowering the entry threshold for beginners. For sure, it is worth learning.
How has content creating and blog writing helped you as a Developer?
Even though I have more than a decade of experience in the framework, I don't know everything — content creation has helped me learn so much more. It’s also helped me to improve my writing skills.
I started tweeting about .NET because it was an excellent way to stay consistent with learning. I got this idea from the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear (I strongly recommend reading it).
I didn't expect to receive such a big interest in my tweets. It has allowed me to connect with a lot of great people. I started to get offers to collaborate with different companies and platforms. And the cool thing is that I learn a lot from my followers - the coding community on Twitter is great. Many replies and discussions around my tweets forced me to think about some features from different perspectives.
I have also been rewarded Microsoft MVP because of my activity in the community.
What's one bit of advice you'd give to aspiring MVPs?
Do what you love and share it with others. Don't think your knowledge is useless because you think everybody already knows it. There is always somebody out there with less experience than you. Be kind and helpful.
What's one piece of advice you'd give to all the coding beginners out there?
Software development is complicated, but everybody can learn it. Don't just watch or read tutorials. Write code, a lot of code. Only practice can make you a good Developer.
Find a mentor. Contribute to open-source. There are a lot of great, free projects on GitHub; join one of them if you can.
But don't push yourself too much. If you are tired, take breaks. And most importantly, don't give up!
We love to collaborate with the #100Devs community.
If you are a Software Engineer looking to collaborate, or if you are searching for a new role, make sure you get in touch!