On a coffee meeting a few weeks ago, the person I was meeting with mentioned another developer who he thought I should meet because of our similar backgrounds. With a bit of awe, he stated she was a "Salesforce developer". A brief search after the meeting informed me that Salesforce, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Cloud Computing platform was accessed, utilized, and manipulated with the Apex programming language specifically created for that purpose. Salesforce is both a SaaS(software as a service) and a PaaS(platform as a service) company. Since that meeting I have wanted to research further to understand what all that meant and what level of training was involved in becoming an Apex developer.
Salesforce is an API, offering cloud services on their many servers. They have developed software applications for clients(other companies) to store customer data(cloud services) and manage customers. This is the SaaS(software as service) piece of the company. They also host a platform for clients to build software: computing devices and databases for clients(other software companies) from which to build. Manipulating this platform and the Salesforce API is done using the Apex programming language.
Apex is a strongly typed object oriented language with syntax similar to Java. When looking at the Apex language, I noticed loops similar to a JavaScript for loop. The class syntax was also very similar, using the new keyword. I read that data types must be overtly stated when declaring a variable and that this is a characteristic of a strongly typed language. The looping allows multiple records to be processed quickly. Apex supports built-in DML(data manipulation language), custom API calls along with warning and error responses. There was a great deal of crossover and the language seemed easy to read. Below is a snippet provided by: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_qs_core_concepts.htm
In order to learn Apex, I had to get a Salesforce account and work on Trailhead. Just setting up the tutorial took more time than I had allotted for our brief window of research, but the language itself seems interesting and within a niche market. I plan on playing with the tutorial in my free time.
https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_qs_core_concepts.htm
https://www.apexsystems.com/Consulting/Pages/SoftwareDev.aspx
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/lightning-experience-for-salesforce-classic-users/get-your-bearings
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/apex/index.htm
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGNjRT7F-2Y