I don’t know about you, but a great way to learn a new technology is to start using it. But to even start using it, it helps to be able to look at a real-world running application built on that technology. Combine that with source code and a walkthrough, and I think you have a winning combination.
That’s where NerdDinner comes in.
NerdDinner.com is the brainchild (and a big child at that) of Scott Hanselman. The concept is simple, let’s get nerds together over dinner so great ideas can flourish. The site is a great way to organize nerd dinners all over the place. The site is live and built using ASP.NET MVC, so go check it out.
But don’t stop there. Now that you’ve seen the site, go check out the source code on CodePlex. What better way to understand how the pieces fit together than to browse the source code for NerdDinner.
And I hope you don’t stop there either. There’s often a tendency to impart too much authority and expertise to an author. But as I’ve learned from writing this book among others, being an author doesn’t require any special expertise, gift, or ability. It just requires a love for self-inflicted pain. My personal pain threshold has been surpassed, so if you hear me talking about writing another, smack me…please.
In the spirit of Nerd Dinners, let’s get the ideas rolling! Create issues and let us know what you like and don’t like and what you think works and doesn’t work. We’re all in this together learning and refining our craft.
Looking at the site and source will show you what NerdDinner.com is, but to learn how it was built, I highly recommend checking out ScottGu’s blog post which presents a brisk end-to-end walkthrough of building NerdDinner.com.
His post is a preview of Chapter 1 of our book, Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0. This chapter gets you started, while the rest of the book (still in production) dives deeper into each of the areas and concepts of the framework. And by the way, the eBook (aka Chapter 1) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license, so feel free to redistribute.
So if you’ve been wondering why my blogging frequency declined this past year, now you know. Getting a release ready for RTM is a lot of work. Writing a book on that release at the same time is pure insanity.
Fortunately, I was in very good company with my esteemed co-authors, Rob “I Feel your pain” Conery, Scott “Five-head” Hanselman, and Scott “The GU” Guthrie, all of whom are completely insane! You heard it here first.