The problem with ASP.NET

So during the last week (uh oh, I started a sentence with ‘So’, I’ve been in the Microsoft world too long) I’ve been hard at studying Ruby and the Rails framework (aka RoR). I’m an IT consultant, so I must have a client that just has to have their project done using RoR, right? Nope, not exactly. Matter of fact, I don’t know anyone which I work with using RoR.

Background check: I’ve been working with the .NET platform since 2001. I was one of the lucky few that got to cut my teeth on some of the private alpha builds of Visual Studio .NET before most folks. Since then, I’ve used .NET on every single project. Everything from thick WinForm apps to Web Services, Remoting based architectures, ASP.NET, everything. There’s little of the framework that I haven’t worked with in some capacity.

Why then, with so much expertise with a growing, popular platform with a major vendor backing it, would I look at something like Ruby on Rails? Isn’t RoR the antithesis of the Enterprise culture you find in the .NET world?

Well, to answer that, it’s important to realize that comparing RoR to .NET side by side isn’t fair to either framework. Ruby, the language used for development, is nothing like C# or VB.NET. Rails, the framework used for web development, is really nothing like ASP.NET. However different, the desired end result is the same. As a developer I use either RoR or ASP.NET to create web applications. I want to do it rapidly, cleanly, and with a respectable architecture backing it up. So in this regard I feel I can take out a license to compare these two beasts.

Indeed, I have invested a considerable amount of time in my career becoming (disposing of all false modesty) an expert in ASP.NET. However that doesn’t mean I should to stay married to a particular platform/language/framework. Nay, as an IT consultant one must stay fresh, one must never stagnate lest one becomes a government employee. Woe to he who becomes merely satisfied with a single technology!

Besides, I am down right frustrated with ASP.NET! Frankly, I find myself with the same damn laundry list of items on each and every project. Of course I have my own architecture that’s matured on every project. Of course it’s a good architecture, conforming to Microsoft’s best practices and guidelines. Of course I have utility classes that are generic enough to knock off a couple of these routine laundry items. This isn’t good enough for me though. One could argue that ASP.NET gives you the “freedom” to create your own architecture and framework. Sure it does, but it also gives you a ton of donkey work along with it.

And another thing! I have found that once you begin using ASP.NET, you’re tied to Visual Studio for design work. Now, Visual Studio is great. There’s no IDE that can top it or even comes close. It has downsides though. I’ve had more fun smashing my finger in my car door than trying to work with an ASPX page in both Dreamweaver and Visual Studio. They don’t like one another, and in order to use Dreamweaver for what it’s good for (page design) and Visual Studio for what it is good for (coding & solution management) you end up sacrificing a ton of features in both tool-sets. They become so watered down neither tool-set really shines at what it does.

And…and..another thing! As I learn more and more with Rails, I see just how dated ASP.NET seems. Okay, I have to use a term I absolutely despise, but Rails is web 2.0 oriented. There, I said it. Truth of the matter is that this whole web 2.0 thing is here to stay and grow. It’s the mindset, or the ideas, of web 2.0 that is/are important. The simplicity. The whole “it just works” thing. Rails is conducive to this mindset, and that’s great.

I’m not giving up entirely on ASP.NET. Certainly not .NET as a whole. There just isn’t a better way to create Windows based applications than .NET. I’ve discovered Ruby on Rails though, and so far I am loving what I see. The purpose of this weblog is to jot down why I think every ASP.NET developer should check out RoR. It’s to journal what is good about RoR, what’s bad about it, and how ASP.NET compares (again, for the end result, not side by side).

So if you’re interested in this endeavor, please continue checking out this little corner of the blogosphere (man, I hate that word too!). Don’t be scared to leave feedback, either.

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