EricNick notes the lack of Java-like Frameworks in the .NET environment here while Jeff Brand chimes in on it here. They are both correct -- at least from one point of view -- about the combination of the a "get it out the door" mentality and "if we wait, they'll build it" having created some dismotivation in the majority to invent new frameworks around .NET. Sure, companies like Avanade have, and the Enterprise Library goes there, but on the whole, I just don't see that kind of innovation in .NET environment either. why?
I believe we don't see as much "big picture stuff" getting done with .Net is that the traditional mindset of the MS developer who grew up in the ActiveX/COM era where MS told us to "glue components and controls together to get stuff "out the door" whlist today waiting for "MS to get it done" tomrrow.
We can call that the "Just Glue It" attitude.
While today's .NET control/component seems pretty strong and loaded with stuff to use, I always get the sense from ISVs that they are waiting for the next shoe to drop since in the next release of .NET, where hey, its built in! Doubt me? Well, I probably wouldn't have needed to buy the Rebex FTP stuff if I would have had Whidbey six months ago. In effect, Microsoft discourages companies from creating anything massive like a framework when, in a few months, there'll be something that's 80% to 90% as complete free in the .NET framework. At a Macro-level, its a zero-sum game. At a Micro-level, a huge risk for folks to take. "Just Glue It" is the optimal economic model for them to take then.
Right or wrong, I think the Microsoft's approach has a lot of "we glue services" thinking in it too. That's not bad on the whole, but I can understand why companies aren't willing to invest man-decades and millions of dollars; and why "communities" of developers don't plunge more of their efforts into inventing things as cool Hiberate, Axis and so on. Why when we'll be able to "just glue it" later on?
On the bright side, the .NET folks seem to have latched on the tools that Open Sources offers to our advantage. Stuff like NUnit and Saxon.NET come to mind. Stuff like Mono and IKVM.NET give me hope that we'll eventually find compatabile technologic and economic models that allow "just glue it" and the "fill-in-the-holes-with-frameworks" approaches to co-exist peacefully.
At least its a start.
Scott left a comment on my post "Yo Microsoft the Enterprise Library..." that piqued my interest. Seems he has gotten the idea about the kind of content I'm looking for. Here's Part One and Part Two of a series on the configuration block.
Yo Yo Scottie Go!
Over here both Lorenzo Barbieri and Chris Hedgate put me on this slick tool (Xi-Softs's NetTransport) for downloading the placeware formatted Webcasts to disk so I could watch them while travelling. It seems work really well, too: I'm listening to the WebCast previewing Enterprise Library that Tom Hollander pointed me at.
You've just gotta love the blogsphere.