need to learn visual studio/C#/VB.NET/SQL in 5 weeks; should i bother?

alyarb

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2009
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Basically a friend's business is using an ASP .NET app developed in house for accessing their database of customers and accounts and what not. Some of the automated functions are throwing errors and they need someone to investigate each error report and fix it. i assume the culprits are SQL statements that may have been outgrown by the database are too specific for whatever the function is that's trying to run. I really don't know much about it but I have zero experience developing or troubleshooting these applications but there is an opportunity for me to be a godsend to a very wealthy friend. i figure if i'm familiar enough with what he's already made the error logs should point me in the right direction, or would i be stupid to bother?
 

HannibalX

Diamond Member
May 12, 2000
9,359
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You can learn some basic MsSQL administration practices in a week or so.

Learn to be an MsSQL DBA in five weeks and be expected to fix errors on production databases? Nope.
 

alyarb

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2009
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the funny part is the developer is still at the company and he says he's too busy.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,486
2,363
136
No, not realistic. You could however show the exception if you have it in plaintext to the original dev since he still works there, he might be able to tell you if it's C# or SQL at least.
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
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If you're already a competent developer who understands SQL and OOP, you should be able to pick .NET easily with 5 weeks of intensive study.
 

bigi

Platinum Member
Aug 8, 2001
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I'd say you need someone with experience to handle this. It might be a good point for you to start learning and gain experience as you move along.

I know many who cannot learn visual studio/C#/VB.NET/SQL in 5 years or ever.
 

alyarb

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2009
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part of the computer engineering program at ucf is about 4 semesters worth of computer science classes and i'm about halfway through them. i'm ok with C/C++ as far as scouring functions for sloppy/error prone work. haven't done any OOP but since i'm going to be looking at this guy's work rather than writing something from scratch i don't think that matters as much. i think it's mostly SQL since what i saw of the "app" today was basically just a page in iexplore where you can hit the db with different criteria, and a results page where you select your entry and the elements in it that can be changed. i haven't seen a detailed reproduction of an error situation like they are getting and i haven't seen the exception that goes with such an error.
 
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purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,659
6,536
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if you have a programming background you should have no problem being able to debug and at least track down where the errors are happening. if you have a programming background, SQL should take you like a week max to start understanding the logic behind it.
 

GlacierFreeze

Golden Member
May 23, 2005
1,125
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Everyone asking for his background didn't read the whole thing...

... I really don't know much about it but I have zero experience developing or troubleshooting these applications but there is an opportunity for me to be a godsend to a very wealthy friend. ...

Pull your head out of your ass. Tell your wealthy friend to find someone who knows what they're doing. You are wasting his time. You have no experience developing or troubleshooting? You're living in a dream world if you think you can learn enough of all of that in 5 weeks to be even close to half way decent. 24x7 for 5 weeks may be pushing it.
 
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IceBergSLiM

Lifer
Jul 11, 2000
29,932
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Everyone asking for his background didn't read the whole thing...



Pull your head out of your ass. Tell your wealthy friend to find someone who knows what they're doing. You are wasting his time. You have no experience developing or troubleshooting? You're living in a dream world if you think you can learn enough of all of that in 5 weeks to be even close to half way decent. 24x7 for 5 weeks may be pushing it.

it depends entirely on the complexity of the projects. He isn't going to be programming a secure online banking application to rival boA in 5 weeks.
 

GlacierFreeze

Golden Member
May 23, 2005
1,125
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it depends entirely on the complexity of the projects. He isn't going to be programming a secure online banking application to rival boA in 5 weeks.

True, but he's going from zero experience to looking at someone else's code trying to fix errors with only 5 weeks of studying. Not gonna work out well. If he had even taken just a few classes at college, I'd say go for it. In his case with zero experience, nope.
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,659
6,536
126
True, but he's going from zero experience to looking at someone else's code trying to fix errors with only 5 weeks of studying. Not gonna work out well. If he had even taken just a few classes at college, I'd say go for it. In his case with zero experience, nope.

yea if the OP doesnt have any professional experience in programming, this is a waste of a thread heh, cause the answer is definitely NO!
 

torpid

Lifer
Sep 14, 2003
11,631
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Do you have verbose details of the errors from a log or similar? My guess is not, but I thought I'd ask. It will be a lot easier to debug the problem without any experience if you actually know exactly where it's occurring. If you don't have that information, then you might have trouble. Also, if you don't have it, then the app's error handling routines were quite poorly written.
 

L1FE

Senior member
Dec 23, 2003
545
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Depending on the complexity of the problem, it might be doable. But that's only realistic if the only problem they're encountering maps directly to a SQL error that's well documented and easily fixable. If that was the case, though, wouldn't they have resolved this issue already? Also, "production" can mean different things to different corps, and it sounds to me like this is a very basic app with minimal complexity. Who knows...you might have a shot!