Learning Cairngorm / MVC

I've been working with Cairngorm for the past 1 1/2 years now. At first, the prospect of learning an MVC framework seemed quite daunting. I did try on two or three occasions to learn how the MVC design patterns work and failed. I even had a traditional .net developer friend come and walk me through it (he just confused the hell outta me).

But, alas, after dabbling with the Cairngorm code at work for the past 1 1/2 years the knowledge of MVC / Cairgnorm has finally transfered to my brain via osmosis. I did tend to learn it by working from the outside in, meaning, someone else had set up the Cairngorm ModelLocator, the Cairngrom Events and Commands, etc... I was typically setting up the views (or custom components) and then tying data into my components via the ModelLocator... and from there, dispatching and listening to Cairngorm events. Again, most of the events and the ModelLocator were set up previously. Anyways, this was my way of getting knowledge of how Cairngorm /MVC works.

So, at that point I was feeling pretty good about how it tap into Cairngorm / the MVC. Now I just needed to learn how to actually set it up and work with the guts of it. To do that, I referred to David Tuckers Cairngorm video tutorials. If you haven't viewed these videos I highly recommend them. David does a great job of explaining the power, method and techniques to using Cairngorm. He explains how to set it up, builds a number of sample applications and explains everything as if you were a 'Jim Foley' aka a guy who has no clue.

The link to his videos:
http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/01/cairngorm-videos-available-as-flv-downloads/

One thing I am finding, is that Cairngorm, or some sort of knowledge of an MVC is very powerful on a resume. If you've considered learning how to use an MVC or don't even really understand what it is just yet, learn it! Even if it takes you a year of dabbling to figure it out (as it did for me).