It always amazes me, how willingly people are taking marketing buzz at face value. This thread about MapInfo and .Net is a good example of it.
Yes, .Net is an impressive development platform, but it's doesn't represent anything new conceptually, it's not without its shortcomings or problems, and it's definitely not the only serious alternative in the market. To think that .Net is going to be the only thing that moves in the future is a very big mistake. But worst of all, .Net doesn't add any real value to the end-user, imho, it really only improves the working conditions for us programmers. This is of course important too :-) , but one should never forget that the end-user/customer couldn't care less whether his application is developed in X, Y or Z, as long as it works to his satisfaction. The marketing buzz about module reuse is primarily buzz, not reality. What matters is the cost, and I've seen no indication that maintaining .Net or .Net apps will result in any real cost improvement. Anyone want to counter this ? And although .Net is supposed to be platform independent, I'm sure .Net will remain a Windows-only feature until Hell freezes over. The resentment against both Microsoft and "commercially controlled open standards" are so deeply rooted, that it'll simply never happen. Unless off course Mr. Gates uses his G$ to build the cross-platform implementations himself, but I don't think that'll happen either. One item that's been claimed here on the list, is how much better C# and VB.Net is compared to MapBasic. But that's a false comparison, since there are more ways to program MapInfo, and always has been. And although Pro's COM model is extremely simple, it still enables powerful and pervasive control of Pro, at least for non-lazy programmers. We've all been screaming for an improved COM model for almost a decade, and MapInfo finally decided to go for .Net. That's the comparison to make, why&how .Net is better than the COM interface, but that's not necessarily always to .Net's advantage ;-) As for the future MapBasic, one of the buzzwords of .Net is the inherent language and (in theory) platform independent (MS)IL runtime language. How about building MapBasic.Net, compiling MB code to IL ? As I see it, such a move would once and for all prove MapInfo's dual commitment to both legacy and future. Just something I needed to get off my chest. Best regards Lars V. Nielsen GisPro --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 14602
