--- Scott Harney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> John Hebert wrote:
> > I'm not a Microsoft apologist by any means, but I
> am
> > neither a Linux zealot. When you say "other
> languages
> > ... have these", what do you mean exactly? I think
> it
> > is an apples to oranges comparison.
>
> IE. how does .NET's web devel environment compare to
> say, ZOPE or
> mod_perl with HTML::Mason? In other words, there
> are a large
> variety of rich rapid development environments for
> web-based
> applications. I, for one, don't find this a
> particularly compelling
> reason to use .NET. My first thought when I read
> that is "So?"
Well, first off, ZOPE and mod_perl with HTML::Mason
are good tools, but they are neither a web development
environment nor are they integrated with any IDE that
I know of. Are there visual IDEs that can do Zope or
mod_perl with HTML::Mason development? The closest I
can think of is activestate.com's Komodo, which I
guess _could_ integrate with ZOPE or mod_perl, but it
currently does not. The same goes for Eclipse, AFAIK.
The neat thing that .NET does is integrate the IDE
with the class architecture for a variety of
application platforms. This has been done to a limited
extent with Java Forte and IBM's VisualAge, but not to
the extent that VS.NET has achieved. It is hard to
argue against the advantages of visual development
tools for RAD when $ is being saved by businesses.
The VS.NET IDE can recognize the objects and handle
them visually, so webapp development becomes a process
of "drag and drop control|object, modify properties".
This _same_ capability is being copied and implemented
by the Mono project.
I will say it again: .NET is Microsoft's answer to the
past successes of Java. JBoss(J2EE), NetBeans, JSP and
pieces of the Apache Jakarta project tied together
with a good open source IDE could have beaten .NET to
the punch, but it didn't happen, for whatever reason
(mostly marketing $$$, IMO).
Speaking as someone who has done a lot of HTML webapp
coding using a variety of tools and technologies, it
is hard to ignore the speed of ASP.NET development due
to its tight integration between the IDE and the
control classes. The capability to examine an object's
methods on the fly while you are coding is essential
to RAD.
What I am trying to point out here is that there is a
neat technology out there which is being legally
"appropriated" by the Mono project. IMO, serious
coders should take a look. I think the Linux community
should learn to copy what works when it is appropriate
and legal, instead of adhering to the "not created
here" mentality.
John Hebert
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