I am no expert in AMX and I realize that any programmer with an experience of a year or minimum 6 months can do a fair amount of justice with a typical AMX programming project. Now having said that, typical projects don’t have much complexity and where the knowledge is not improved upon, a programmer goes into a ctrl+C and ctrl+P mode. I am just outlining the journey that i have taken to build up my skill sets so that you can do complex projects and in turn make your clients satisfied.
Here are a few steps that were divinely ordained and helped me all along.
1) Learn under experts.
I had the God-given opportunity to work in AMX India, not that I applied for a job there but due to the fact that my previous company got taken over by them. Even though I used to while away time by using up company resources like browsing,etc., I had the privilege of being trained under the AMX experts then like Edwin Rajadurai and Srinivasan Kannan. Out of my experience I would suggest that it’s always better to partner with a mentor since they would have gone through the same journey ahead of you.
2) Network.
If you are unable to find experts due to their lack in your company, the best solution would be to get involved in AMX forums. Most of the solutions that you may be seeking are already mentioned there and most of the members are eager to help, provided it doesn’t take much of their time and effort.
3) Complex projects..
Since I work in a purely programming services company, most of the projects we used to get were the ones that the AV SI (audio video systems integrator) couldn’t handle with their own programming staff or other reasons like lack of resources and time. Basically, this resulted in projects which were complex an in turn helped us improve our knowledge.
When you do projects like Kinect gestures integration with AMX or do overseas projects in Canada, Kuwait,etc you tend to scale up in terms of standards and efficiency.
4) Training.
When i was working as technical support engineer in AMX, India, i had to take up classroom training in programming for their dealers and in my current profile, i still impart training to my subordinates. When you train others, you get to refresh your knowledge and also you try different ways to do the same old exercises. And at times, when you clear doubts for your students, you end up learning something new.
These are the ways that i learned AMX, what ways have you followed. Please post in the comments section below.
Good job sir!