Commercial developers, meet your Build MC
If you are not attending Microsoft Build 2018 in person, you’ll be able to attend virtually by joining the free digital gathering — Microsoft Build Live — where you can check out live keynotes and select sessions, watch on-demand sessions, interact with other developers and Microsoft experts, and create and share your custom playlists and favorites.
What’s more, this year’s Build Live offering will feature five top developers from the Windows Developer community, each known as a Build MC. Their time on the ground at Microsoft Build will result in tailored online experiences of the conference for developers around the world who can’t attend themselves.
Read on to learn more about Ginny Caughey, Build MC, commercial development.
Multi-generational development
Ginny Caughey is president and owner of Carolina Software, Inc. — which provides software to the solid waste management industry. She also makes Windows apps, keeping her skills fresh and continually learning new ones. It’s a passion she has passed down through the generations.
“My son and granddaughter are both software engineers,” she says. “It definitely runs in the family — at least one part of the family — the other part of the family doesn’t want to hear about it.”
While this may make for some fraught dinnertime conversations, it also helps Ginny focus on her work. “That’s one of the fun things about going to Microsoft Build — I can talk to other people who are interested in the same technical things that I am,” she says.
Heading to Seattle as a Build MC
Ginny has not missed a Microsoft Build conference yet, and she was a speaker at last year’s conference, so she has made plenty of friends over the years. As a Build MC, she looks forward to meeting new developers on the ground and helping guide those online interested in commercial development.
This social aspect of the conference inspires her work. “It’s very energizing connecting with people who share my passion,” she says. “It keeps me going for another year. It makes me look at the old code with fresh eyes and the old challenges with fresh approaches.”
Such new ways of thinking will help her continue to convert legacy code. “I’ve been building applications for the solid waste industry for several decades, and we have clients all over the US and Canada using our software, so I can’t just throw it away,” she says. “As I gradually modernize it to take advantage of new hardware, and respond to requests that the users have, I look to Microsoft to help me with that transition.”
She has been sitting on her enterprise code while her clients migrate their desktops to Windows 10. Now that they have — or are near finished doing so — she won’t have to wait long to put what she learns this year at Microsoft Build into action. She’s excited to see what more she can do.
Windows passions run deep
The technology Ginny is most passionate about is the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). She has also written applications using Win 32, Windows Forums, and WPF. “I support them all,” she says, “but I’m gradually moving all my applications to UWP via Desktop Bridge, which allows me to put a UWP wrapper around older legacy code. I really want to make things easier for myself and for my team by getting onto newer technologies.”
Making apps for the solid waste industry is like a mission for Ginny. “I like to think that we’re making the world a better, cleaner, and healthier place to live,” she says. “It’s very gratifying.”
She also likes making apps that are completely unrelated, such as Password Padlock, which lets users manage all their passwords securely across all their Windows devices and backs up to OneDrive. Their master passwords are never stored and are secured using AES-256 encryption. The app currently has a rating of 4.5 out of five from 412 reviews on the Microsoft Store.
“I built it as a way for me to improve my UWP development,” she says. “I started the application with Windows Phone 7 with Silverlight, and I moved through the Windows RT phase, and a new version for Windows 10 with the Fall Creators Update will be out in beta very shortly. This type of development allows me to create more and more new features that I can’t yet in my commercial software. It’s a great learning opportunity.”
Being a developer has allowed Ginny to create her own business and to work independently, which is very important to her. But that’s not the main reason she does it. “The real answer is, I think it’s fun,” she says. “I thought it was fun 10 years ago, and I still think it’s a lot of fun. You can make things better for everyone who uses the software. I love that!”
RSVP to Microsoft Build Live here. Then, to follow Ginny online and focus on commercial development during the event, go here.
