*Warning this is long* I do not care much for .Net at all but the VS IDE is much easier to use for the developer than MapBasic. If you really want to run cross-platform with .Net then you can use Mono. It works in the same way Java works. Yes, it works on different platforms but native code almost always runs and looks better. Maybe that will change, it hasn't for Java so I'm not holding out much hope for .Net.
.Net may be marketing hype but it is hype that developers and companies all over are quickly buying into. The other developers will do what we have always done keep on writing base libraries in C++ and providing interfaces to it for the people who choose to buy into MS newest eye candy. OLE/COM was the same way years ago. It was MS's newest thing and all the DDE programmers said it was [EMAIL PROTECTED] It was and still is, so was DDE. But we adapted and overcame and now we write COM wrappers for people who use VB and other automation server languages. Now it will simply be we write the same system level code and we provide a managed wrapper around it for C#/VB/whatever clr language the consumer is using. Make no mistake .Net will be MS's wave of the future. They will make it be that way whether we like it or not. Look at how many VB6 programmers screamed when they saw VB.Net yet MS has not changed VB.Net in any significant way to pacify them. People say "well we'll move to non MS technology". I say sure whatever I'll believe it when I see it. Developers don't drive the use of technology the users do and the users are eating up this .Net bullsh!t like it's the best thing since heroin. The Open Source community may have some better applications than those developed proprietarily such as Mapserver hands down beats both ArcIms and MapXtreme in performance and flexibility but you must be a developer to get it up and going. Another good example is Firefox vs. IE6. However the OS community does not have a valid platform alternative for users and the boat has long sailed on that sea. MS is to far ahead. To many people use their stuff and OS platforms are way to far behind to catch up. MS also isn't resting on it's laurels they will keep driving forward with new eye candy for the users. MS has the most applications, and the greatest usability. There UI's are light years beyond their OS competitors from a user stand point. So now with the lions share of the market they will start forcing changes a little at a time. .Net is just the beginning. MS will force these changes on the users of their development products. I have quite a few friends who are developers for MS. MS knows their are two types of developers out there, the kind who develop at a system level using C/C++/Object Pascal/ whatever and then there are the other developers who use the automation server languages and can only develop what the tools give them access to. They cater to both groups. They give away stuff for free to the system level developers like the SDK, the free fully optimizing and ISO compliant C++ compiler from 2004, etc plus the new compiler in 2005 will have full control over floating point calculations for all your edge cases where you must control how floats are handled in an algorithm. They know these developers are the ones who extend and drive their technology forward. They also know these people need to make money so they provided managed C++. There are more people working on managed C++ at MS right now than any other .Net language. They do not however expect you to write stuff in it, they expect you to wrap stuff with it. So just like we have been making money for years off of COM we can continue to do so with C++. Also note that C++ is the only language where you can mix managed and unmanaged code. MS will not bite the hand that feeds them. You don't get to be on top of the industry by being dumb. They also know that the consumers of the system level developers stuff (I call them mid-level developers) need eye candy and wiz bangs to keep them happy. So you get .Net with it's 15,000 varieties of datagrid control, massive libraries, drag and drop everything etc. So now Joe analyst in marketing can write the [EMAIL PROTECTED] code on the planet and it will not only run but it will look cool too. He's happy, his boss is happy, and so are the developers who wrapped all that for him so he could make it happen. Everybody from the user to the library developer wins and MS cashes the biggest check of them all. The real losers in this game are the mid-level developers who were developing distributed apps in languages like VB6. They are going to loose in a big way. MS is all about corporation and corporate development. .Net is going to thoroughly screw the private mid-level developer. Because the minute they port their code to .Net anyone can decompile or crack it even if it's obfuscated. Just like you can with Java now. I think .Net will be just like COM it will be whatever you choose to make of it but if you don't use it or move to a system level language your stuff will become obsolete on the Windows OS just the same way COM did to DDE but in a quicker fashion because at some point in the near future MS will break backwards compatibility so if you aren't using system level code in C or C++ then you will have to move to .Net if you want your stuff to run on any of their new OS's after the OS's like Longhorn and what comes after it are released. Sorry this was so long but I work for a massive corporation and I have been fighting .Net since it's inception to keep our systems free of it. Because once you put code in it your technology cycles are not your own if you write it in one of the clr languages. They now belong to MS when they patch or upgrade so must you. However try telling that to a corporate VP and you get blank stares because they don't think that way. They see the pretty UI and quick development turnarounds and go "Oh that must mean savings" when really it just means their interface now belongs to MS not them. So now MS can determine when and how often you pay extra. Issue a security patch and "oh sorry it broke your app, you need to pay for the (insert upgrade here) SDK now", or "oh that compatibility or knowledge is only available to corporate level MSDN subscribers". So where are your savings now Mr. VP? MS will walk a fine line with this as they always have they won't charge to much or it becomes obvious and people move away from their products. Just enough to keep companies using their products and to keep the revenue constant. If you think this is a harsh assessment come work with me for a day so I can show you they have done it to depts. where I work who have chosen to write there web apps in ASP.Net. Those are my feelings on .Net. As to how this affects MapInfo. They are a corporation and they have bought into .Net hook line and sinker so if you want to keep developing for MapInfo products and you only know MapBasic then you will have to move to .Net if you want your products to stay relevant. Just ask all the VB6 programmers out there what is happening to their share of the market to get an idea of what is going to happen to MapBasic. Who knows maybe MapInfo will write a MapBasic.Net compiler. It wouldn't be that hard clr compilers are pretty easy to write. But you will move to .Net one way or the other unless your customers don't upgrade their MapInfo. By buying into .Net MapInfo corp. will drag the developers who write for their products along with it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 14605
