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Question is, how long before we think .NET is going to be production ready?
I should clarify the difference between something being actually production ready and Microsoft releasing v1.0 which is really just the public beta test in disguise.
In a zdnet poll taken a month or two back I remember reading that most Java programmers wont move to .NET, however close to the end of the survey there was some controversy when a few votes per second started arriving from something.Microsoft.com.
So what do we think, how long before .NET can really go live?
or alternatively, how long before you would use a .NET powered IRS site to file your tax returns?.
Interestingly enough, after years of working in ASP, VB, SQL Server & NT/2k, I've started transferring some of our central reusable code to PHP.
Lemmie know your thoughts!,
Dw.
That sounds prudent. No more "gimmes" for the Redmond bunch.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020527/tech_microsoft_eu_1.html
But my Microsoft engineers tell me that they want to do it in .NET however the Hosting .NET stuff is not ready yet. Still in Beta. They told me maybe by the end of the year is should be production.
Even some local US governments are switching from ASP to ASP.NET for their application development right now...
Are there any companies that offer shared hosting and .NET support?
I do use a great hosting company who basically only host development sites, they have support to die for, relatively cheap, they install everything ASP & .NET related (aspupload, asphttp, aspwinsock, asppop3, aspsmtp, around 20 other ASP components, then there's the .NET mobile stuff, the .NET general arch, etc).
They're one of my 2 main hosts for all client testbeds, last year they moved everyone (for free I might add) up to a load balanced 2 server setup.
Of course I cant possibly tell you their name (ye olde linking rules), but I can sit over here smiling that I have a good hosting company who are ever so helpful. (but if you search on google for asp hosting and choose the first result that
-is not a blatant keyword domain of keyword-keyword-keyword .com
-starts with www.bri
you'll find them).
Most (actually all) of the sites using .aspx pages I've seen are Microsoft sites (msn.com, support.Microsoft.com, etc). Except my site, and that's only because I get almost all my work by referral, if I got most work through my website there wouldn't be a chance in hell of me trusting bill & his latest sillyness.
It's all in your definition of 'stable' i guess :)
But why do it when ASP co-exists with .NET?
There is a lot of technology to assimulate to really exploit .NET. Most of my clients are going slowly because IT budgets are so depressed. Money is being spent on maintenance and enhancements with some new monies going into security.
Things like the datagrid in .NET are drawing a lot of interest. Java to C# is getting a ho-hum, because none of my ASP clients every committed to client-side Java and server-side Java is almost unknown.
Most of the VB application are being written by non-Internet developers, so for the minute VB.NET holds little interent.
XML is beginning to get some serious use and SQL Server XML facilities are starting to be explored. SOAP is in production at only one of my clients and then in only one app.
Visual Studio with its hefty price tag ($2500 per developer someone said) is seen as overkill by most developers that have been using text editors or just notepad for ASP development.
There are a few .NET hosting companies and Visual Studio .NET has 9 of their "preffered" ASP.NET web hosts. And william_dw your hosting company is #1 among their Additional Providers as opposed to the top two Premier providers. There are even some free ASP.NET hosting offers, but they are only good to play around and practice though.. I could post a list of all 9 of these hosts, but I think I will be frowned upon. Right?
Therefore in answer to the question How long till .NET will be something to use in production? The answer is NOW.
Companies that install .Net usually begin to do all new work as .aspx pages. Few have a real understanding of .NETs new features or of XML at all. I will take some time before the richness of .NEt will be fully exploited.
The new technology is already taking off. 90% of developers that host their own sites have already converted. .Net has technology to stop all memory leaks that ASP had and monitor and configures your site on the fly to suit it's traffic. The only problem with .Net is there are not enough hosts.
Chris.
I would agree with chris, the time for .NET is already here, if you don't realize this you are falling behind and will have to catch up in the future. Once you tasted ASP.NET you will not want to come back to the lame ASP coding.
I do realize that .NET is going to be huge, and as I mentioned I've already switched my site over with all it's email forms & tracking etc to .NET coding (the whole label thing isn't for me though, I still prefer placing strategic function calls in the content like I've always done).
I agree that spaghetti code in Classic ASP has been an issue, but that's more a reflection upon the programmer than the language in my opinion, it is possible to write very nice clean class oriented ASP code, the secret is in the planning. As with most languages, it's possible to shoot yourself in the foot if you don't approach things professionally. A notable exception is C++, where you can happily go past the shoot-self-in-foot stage and simply blow off an entire leg.
I'm curious how many people will take up the learning curve though,
when .NET was announced I took a few days to reevaluate the tools I use & how I could improve things, and decided that while .NET would be great when it arrived & was stable, PHP already had a large base of functions & was crossplatform, plus was more secure than any .NET offering would be for a while (which was later confirmed based upon the compiler flaws hyped in the media of late).
I'm guessing that there could be several small % shifts to other languages, although the CLI runtime will probably understand those languages reasonably soon so it may be a moot point.
I know of one coder who's moving out of web programming and instead training to become a business analyst because he feels that the web programming market is becoming saturated with amateurs who will make the field unprofitable for a few years. I'm more optimistic - the plethora of point&click tools around creates a great market for fixing problems created by in-house staff or offshore companies that leave jobs half finished.
When you discount all the hype which has been spewed out, .NET promises to be a good architecture which will help make all our lives easier, but I'd feel more comfortable using my credit card on a .asp or .php or .jsp site for a while longer.
I've seen individual parts of it up for classes, but not the fundamentals of all of it.
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/
http://www.aspalliance.com/
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/
Sorry if posting these is against the rules, I am not affiliated with any of them.
how long before you would use a .NET powered IRS site to file your tax returns?
Never, I hope. The last thing we should allow Redmond is to get its hooks on IRS data. Show of hands, kids: who remembers why Microsoft failed to buy Intuit? Yup, it was the objections of the banking industry to the probable ream job they'd all face if Microsoft also held the dominant personal accounting package. The IRS? Dear God...
