Good morning internet, I’m Eric Lippert. You may know me from my Microsoft Developer Network blog, Fabulous Adventures In Coding, where I discuss the design and implementation of C# and various other programming languages.

There is something profoundly satisfying about building a tool, which is why I enjoy my job so much: I make software tools. In fact, I make software meta-tools: my customers are themselves software engineers, who are in turn making software tools for their customers.

But that is a very abstract approach to toolmaking. When I’m not working on programming languages, I enjoy puttering around my hundred-year-old house, and I’ve amassed a considerable number of tools in doing so. I have a working, though entirely self-taught, knowledge of basic carpentry and electrics. But an area I have absolutely no experience in at all is metalworking; it is our ability to work metals that has driven our amazing technological advancement for the majority of the last six thousand years.

So, I’m thinking that this autumn when it gets cold and rainy and not much fun to sail, instead of working on yet another book editing project, perhaps I’ll build myself a foundry in the garage, start melting aluminum, and see if I can build some tools. If I do, this blog will document my fabulous adventures in metal casting. Like I said, this is an area I know practically nothing about, so I’m going to be learning as I go here.