Inspired by a mate’s list of tech goals, I thought I’d do some thinking about things I really want to get into in 2011. So here’s my current wish list of things to pursue this year (in no particular order).
- JavaScript - I’ve spent plenty of time with YUI in 2010 and just working with that library took my JavaScript skills to a whole new hardcore level. Matthew Taylor really excited me about JS when we had him on the Grails Podcast. This year, though, I want to make JavaScript my “learn a language” project and learn it well enough to be able to write a reusable library in it. I have some JavaScript consulting coming up early in the year so I’ve got plenty of incentive to step up. I’ve recently been reading JavaScript Patterns and found it a fantastic stretcher. Also picked up John Resig’s book on MEAP which has been a pretty hardcore read.
- Android - I have a HTC Desire, and the company that I co-lead has a strong Android consulting business, and adoption is exploding in Australia, so there’s really no reason for me to not step up this year and put together a few simple apps. I’m full of ideas, so there’s plenty of motivation here.* HTML5/CSS3 - Outside of Android, I’m not sure I’ll be putting this to too much use given my common client platforms, but it will become an inevitable, so I’m keen to at least learn the new semantic markup tags and start working with them.* Grails Testing - I’ve made pretty solid use of the standard Grails unit testing support (which is fantastic), but I’m keen to explore the Geb and Spock stuff this year, and it’s been on my list for ages. Time to make it happen. Ditto for Gradle, since that’s coming to Grails in a big way soon…There’s also talk of a Second Edition of that Grails book for late 2011. Who knows what might happen there…
- Graphic Design - This one is an evergreen. Though not just “web design”, but actually more general (and basic) design skills that I can use outside of a Web setting (including print and email). I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with the Non-Designers Design Book which has been an amazing primer on basic design principles. Just need tons of practice, and I have lots of opportunity in 2011.
But enough talk, need to go and make some stuff happen! Will keep you posted…