Read other peoples code

Today I was looking at the Cuyahoga project to see how it made use of NHibernate (comments here). I'm currently on the NHibernate learning curve and it's good to see how other people do stuff. This reminded me that it's always nice to look through other peoples code. Since I'm a lone contractor, I don't have the great luxury of working with/learning from a team, so it's nice to soak up any external experience possible.

Another great resource for code browsing is the koders open source project browser. This makes source browsing really easy! The link I gave gives the source for NHibernate, but it can show loads of projects. For example, a few months back I wanted to look at how different projects handled the command pattern. A search on koders for "Command" or "Action" revealed a whole host of projects that use this pattern. It was really interesting to see the different approaches used. So, this kind of thing can be a real learning tool.

Whilst on the subject of soaking up knowledge... I think another good way for us loners to get new knowldege is to talk to other developers via MSN/email. Yesterday I was talking to Thomas, and he was giving me some tips about mobile development. Also, I've been talking to a guy called Inderpal about NHibername and LLBLGEN, and he was telling me about his chosen architecture and project. Of course, I love my books/magazines/websites too, but live interactive communication just can't be beaten sometimes!

Starting my pet project, SqlBuddy was a really good networking tool I thought, since it helped me get to know quite a few new developers (Thomas included, as his company worked on SqlBuddy for a while). Also, it was great fun working with developers all over the world on a shared (albeit small) code base. For any developer wanting to meet other developers and expand their knowledge, I would seriously recommend getting involved with an Open Source project if you have time.

I must admit, personally I would like to continue to communicate more with my fellow developers to share knowledge and get new ideas. I reckon it would be ace to hold weekly 30 minute MSN conference calls on a given subject, where each member can listen, ask questions and contribute. Any takers? Subjects could be ".NET Data Access Strategies", "NHibernate", "Small Enterprise Development Projects" etc... Even better, anyone know of any tools out there to help host such discussions?