From web development to mobile development, this is how I did it

I started my professional development career as a web developer, using PHP. Soon after, I switched to the .NET ecosystem and continued web development using C# and the ASP .NET MVC framework. All I've ever created were web apps, until recently...

A few months ago I started developing mobile apps with Android and iOS, and then thanks to Xamarin, I can still use C#. The reason why I wrote this article is to share my feelings after making this change.

Why I made this decision

You may ask why I decided to switch from web development to mobile development. Because I want to do something new and learn new skills, although I still have a lot to learn about web programming.

I think mobile apps have a bright future, although there are already many apps in online stores. However, new mobile devices are coming, such as smart watches, and they represent new opportunities for developers. This is a great opportunity to learn how to create applications for mobile devices.

Not to mention that the company I currently work for happens to have this opportunity to develop new Android and iOS applications using my favorite language (C#), so why not take advantage of this opportunity.

New programming model

I know that the way of programming will change. This has been learned from a project called Windows Phone that I have experienced before and participated in the development of mobile applications. But I wasn’t ready for what I was going to do, and didn’t think I could be.

Unlike applications in websites that have a specific lifecycle, you can't just reply to a request with a response. Almost everything I've learned about building web applications doesn't help me - the paradigm is completely new.

Asynchronous programming is mandatory in this field because the application will stall if everything runs on the user interface (UI) thread. I've always wanted to improve my skills in this area, and I've found a great way to achieve this goal.

The separation of concerns is also different. There is no longer Model View Controller (MVC), but the Model View ViewModel (MVVM) pattern is used. Even though I've used it (in WPF and Windows Phone), it's not at the same level and I still have a lot to learn.

Of course, you also have to use a simulator to test the application. Every time you want to test, you have to build and deploy the simulator. You can't just refresh the page to see the changes. The feedback loop is long, taking several minutes most of the time, so debugging will be slow and critical.

Get out of your comfort zone

I started working on the app about two months ago and there is still a lot to learn. I needed to deal with two ecosystems (Android and iOS) that I had no experience with, two frameworks that I knew nothing about (Xamarin and MvvmCross), and some business requirements that were not easy to meet. Fortunately, though, at least I know how to use C#.

Now I am struggling every day. I have a lot of things to consider, the main ones are some "how to do it?" issues related to my new development environment. There are also a lot of “What if?” questions: “What if the network is not available”, “What if this solution is too slow?”, “How can we provide the best experience for our customers?”…

Sometimes, I can't produce anything all day long. To be honest, at that time, I will feel that I am really useless and a swindler - since I can't produce anything of value at work, then How can one consider oneself a professional software developer?

Well, I think this feeling is like stepping out of your comfort zone and being in the peak and valley of the learning stage.

Learning rate with peaks and valleys

Don’t give up

But I’m not the only one transitioning, I’m not alone in this battle. Everyone on the team has to face the same amount of learning, senior developers and junior developers alike.

Now looking back at my journey in the past two months, I realize that I still have various shortcomings and there is still a lot of road to go, but I have also learned a lot, such as now about asynchronous programming and The concepts of those MVVM patterns are relatively familiar.

If I want to become a professional mobile developer, then I still need to continue learning, continue to complete my journey, learn the skills I lack, and produce value that meets customer expectations. Even though my job makes me miserable from time to time, I don't regret it because it is a great learning opportunity. No matter how long it takes I will succeed.