Zarr's VB Website - VBUG View: Whats .Net All About

As chairman of VBUG (http://www.vbug.co.uk), Graham Parker has been supporting thousands of windows developers worldwide since 1994, through his developer services organisation VBUG.

We asked him to help our readers understand what the Microsoft .Net initiative was all about, and this is what he told us...

The .Net Paradigm Shift

Ever since in the 1970’s a professor of philosophy coined the phrase “paradigm shift”, there has been some gravitational force that pulls writers and orators towards using the phrase to illuminate their audience. This article is no different. I’m unashamedly attempting to highlight the good and the bad coming out of .Net and explaining why it really is a shift of such proportion (a “paradigm shift”) that developers should take note and take note now.

What is .Net?

.Net is definitely an umbrella marketing term. It’s the way that Microsoft is referring to their new wave of technology. Luckily for us developers, there’s more to .Net than just marketing, it’s a real technology breakthrough – the kind of shift that comes around once a decade.

Under the umbrella of .Net we will see several different product offerings that will work together to form solutions.

.Net Enterprise Server Products (Exchange, SQL Server etc.)
Visual Studio .Net (The developer’s toolkit)
Compact runtimes for mobile devices
And eventually a new operating system called Windows.Net
…and there will be more categories too.

The new Visual Studio probably affects developers most right now, as it is one of the earliest products to be released. To gain widespread acceptance Microsoft has had to solve some of the intrinsic problems with its COM technology – which will eventually be phased out. These problems have been solved by the introduction of a new runtime the Common Language Runtime (CLR) that replaces the independent runtimes (e.g. the VB Runtime) that currently exist and addresses some of the know problems with COM (e.g. DLL Hell and lack of true inheritance).

Many Languages – One Platform

The stakes have been raised in the Microsoft battle against Java. Since the Sun lawsuit, Microsoft are not allowed to produce a version of Java – their hands are tied by the courts – Sun won that battle. Part of the Java school of thought is “one language – many platforms”. The Microsoft argument is practically the opposite – “many languages – one platform.” With Visual Studio .Net you can continue to develop in your favourite language (VB, C++, COBOL, PERL) and your code will ‘compile’ down to pseudo code that can ship to any Windows platform supporting the .NET Framework. The choice of language is down to the developer. Unfortunately – at the time of writing – you’ll be tied to the Windows platform when you come to ship your code.

Incidentally Microsoft don’t have their own version of COBOL and PERL, they have encouraged other vendors to develop versions of their language for the .Net platform. Microsoft have their own language – a new language specifically for the .Net platform – C# (pronounced C – Sharp). If you’re coming to .Net from a C++ background then this is probably the language for you. It rivals Java in terms of elegance, style and functionality.

But the need for .Net technology has arisen not only out of a need for improvements in technology, but also due to rapid changes in the way that organisations and individuals are trading and communicating. Here are some of the fundamental changes:

Software is changing from a product that you box and shrink-wrap to a service that you lease!
The .Net technology is not just about technological breakthrough. It is undoubtedly an innovation. Just think about that for a moment, you rent some time on a server – there’s one copy of the software – it’s always up-to-date. No more CD updates through the post.
Applications can communicate using XML over HTTP.
With application-to-application communication businesses will be able to integrate their own systems with other organisations to provide much richer functionality. This will become economical and has the potential to rapidly reduce administration costs. This functionality is being standardised across all the major software vendors as “WebServices”.
Smart devices will connect to the Web.
Handheld devices like phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s) are likely to outnumber the PC’s that are connected to the Internet.

When you combine the technological improvements in .Net with the changes to the way software will be developed and distributed it isn’t difficult to see that this change is much more relevant than a new product or a service pack. I have been using the .Net technology since the summer of 2000 and I am convinced that there are opportunities and pitfalls for everyone. And indeed I am convinced that we have entered the age of the paradigm shift.

For more information visit these great sites:

http://www.vbug.co.uk/training/ .Net Training and Onsites

http://www.vbug.co.uk/dnz/magazine/ Getting Started with VB.Net

http://www.asptoday.com/ ASP.Net

http://www.csharpindex.com/ .Net Languages (C Sharp)

http://www.gotdotnet.com/ The .Net Framework

http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/ The Microsoft.Net homepage

UK IT Marketplace

Powered by www.net-communities.com