Okay, Geek Trust...
I find myself with a bit more "free" time than I generally care for between runs, and whether I like it or not my writing has hit a stalling point (a bad thing with NaNoWriMo just a few days away from starting). I don't like sitting around staring at the parking lot and letting my brain idle all that much, and I'd like to continue some of my earlier geeky pursuits - namely, programming.
My question to you, dear Geek Trust, is this: should I renew and update my Java skills or should I learn C#? Which holds more promise in the FOSS or single-developer arena? I have development tools for both, although the C# compiler is beta software and will expire at some point (and I don't have the $$$ to acquire the full Visual Studio).
Keep in mind that I've barely (and I do mean BARELY) scratched the surface of database design and implementation, but I'm pretty sure both the J2SE/J2EE and .NET environs provide database connectivity, although Java is going to be more Oracle-centric and anything under .NET will lean towards Microsoft SQL Server...and if I had my choice, I'd do all my database design in MySQL or PostgreSQL, and I'm not sure .NET has full ODBC implementation. I'd have to acquire reference materials for both, since the J2SE platform has been updated to include some new features such as collections and generics, and I've never looked at J2EE...and .NET is almost completely foreign to me, although I've looked at some source code for it and it resembles both Java and C.
At any rate...
Poll Which language
My question to you, dear Geek Trust, is this: should I renew and update my Java skills or should I learn C#? Which holds more promise in the FOSS or single-developer arena? I have development tools for both, although the C# compiler is beta software and will expire at some point (and I don't have the $$$ to acquire the full Visual Studio).
Keep in mind that I've barely (and I do mean BARELY) scratched the surface of database design and implementation, but I'm pretty sure both the J2SE/J2EE and .NET environs provide database connectivity, although Java is going to be more Oracle-centric and anything under .NET will lean towards Microsoft SQL Server...and if I had my choice, I'd do all my database design in MySQL or PostgreSQL, and I'm not sure .NET has full ODBC implementation. I'd have to acquire reference materials for both, since the J2SE platform has been updated to include some new features such as collections and generics, and I've never looked at J2EE...and .NET is almost completely foreign to me, although I've looked at some source code for it and it resembles both Java and C.
At any rate...
Poll Which language