Get started with Microsoft Learn developer tutorials
How we developers use documentation has changed. Sites like Stack Overflow have given us different expectations of how we can collaborate around documentation, and around the code we build. As part of devops processes, we’re using tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams to discuss the code we write, and with Visual Studio’s Live Share we can code together even if one developer is using a PC and another is using a Mac.
With development tools and documentation changing, how we learn is changing too. Under the hoods of our development tools, read-eval-print loops let us treat editors as scratchpads where we can try out code before we build it into our apps. Using JavaScript and Electron-based development tools like Visual Studio Code, our development environments are also only one step from the web.
There’s a logical next step, then, to tools like Microsoft Docs: bringing modern development practices into the documentation we use, making it the basis for live training, using web-based tools that are closely related to the IDEs and editors we use every day.
What Microsoft Learn offers developers
Microsoft’s new Learn training platform takes those concepts and builds on the gamified approach to learning that’s being used by Salesforce’s Trailhead. You earn badges for completing tasks, using resources running on Azure to actually try out the concepts that are being taught. For example, when you’re learning about defining and deploying a VM, you’re actually using a live Azure tenant in the Azure portal.
But—and this is possibly the smartest decision Microsoft has made with Learn—you’re not using your own account and incurring costs; you’re using one of a myriad virtual accounts that Learn uses to spin up and destroy resources as it needs them. Your Learn Azure account won’t affect any other Azure subscriptions you’re using, so you can use it alongside your production accounts and any Visual Studio subscription benefits. You can even use the same account for Learn as for your own Azure instances, because Learn maps your ID to its own concierge accounts.
