We shall see then, huh. John
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Schummer Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 11:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NF] Visual Studio Lightswitch >> Isn't LightSwitch for non programmers?<< Initial marketing (or press leaks to Mary Jo Foley) indicated they were targeting the high-end computer users who don't get the attention of IT. Non-programmers, people who use Access are being mentioned by numerous articles and posts, some talk about FoxPro apps too. Departmental level apps. But if you listen to people like Ken Levy and Markus Egger interview the LightSwitch team members you get the impression that this tool can be used to add functionality to an existing application, or to supplement development of support tables. You know, the alleged "boring stuff" developers don't want to spend time on with a full n-tiered approach. Markus mentioned numerous "complicated" layer technologies (MVVM, WPF, Silverlight, EF4, etc.) in the CodeCast podcast during the interview just to put together a form that maintains the data in a single support table. He feels this is perfect fit for this type of work. I would wonder why a user would want to use one app for support tables and another (likely completely different looking app) for maintaining the core data and reporting. In the circles I travel I am hearing most developers disrespect this product, but I also question motives as they could just be pulling a Vista (not actually using it before dissing it), or be anti-Microsoft. There has been a recent push by a small set of well known .NET developers (Egger, Levy, Paddock, Berntson and others) who are pushing this as a legitimate product developers should be willing to take a look at. Who do you want to believe? My personal take is believe no one and just give it a try to see if and where it makes sense. I am on the fence at the moment as I can see even more business opportunities converting the departmental LightSwitch apps to "real" apps, just like I have with Access/Excel apps for the last bunch of years. What I am concerned about is that users will consider this an end all tool (and it might be), but as we have seen from Microsoft, it takes a while for them to get things right. As Markus described the "complicated layers" used in a .NET app during his interview, I figured it would take me 30 minutes tops to assemble a form using the tools I have and it is completely n-tier using VFP 9, including polishing the interface and numerous business rules. Allegedly this is much easier in LightSwitch and it follows industry accepted best practices too. Rick White Light Computing, Inc. www.whitelightcomputing.com www.swfox.net www.rickschummer.com [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/0ecf01cb4081$f96166a0$ec2433...@[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
