The Four Pillars of ASP.NET

Paul Litwin posted an interesting article that discusses the four pillars of ASP.NET (Web Forms, MVC, AJAX, and Dynamic Data) to his blog. He provides a good overview and comparison of these different approaches to building ASP.NET applications. According to the article, although Web Forms will always be an important Microsoft technology for building web applications, ASP.NET is no longer just Web Forms. And, this is a good thing :)

You can read his blog entry here:

http://weblogs.asp.net/paullitwin/archive/2009/03/30/the-four-pillars-of-asp-net.aspx

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posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:39 AM | Filed Under [ ASP.NET ASP.NET MVC ]

Comments

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# re: The Four Pillars of ASP.NET
Posted by matt kocaj
on 4/4/2009 11:05 PM

I'm interested: Paul seems to suggest IMO that MVC will not eventuate into something bigger than the WebForms part of the aspnet stack. It seems understandable from the tone of his article that he prefers the WebForms to MVC. thats kool. My question is tho: do you think WebForms will eventually dwindle to give way to more DDD/TDD/Agile approaches like MVC (within the aspnet stack context)? or do you believe(/know from inside info) the reverse is true? Maybe MVC will be the standard web dev approach from MS in years to come (given that it's widely accepted in the ruby/php/java worlds)?
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# re: The Four Pillars of ASP.NET
Posted by Ali
on 4/5/2009 3:19 PM

It seems that many developers don't like the idea of adopting new technology either because they don't tend to or because they don't have time. Think about it. if, let us say, a brand new developer, want to learn a new technology for developing web applications and you explain to him all the merits of the current technologies, what do you think that he/she will adopt. I have been developing web application for the last 12 years (This includes, classic asp, php, Java applets, ASP.NET web forms, ASP.NET AJAX) and I have never seen something that is reliable, maintainable, testable (and I mean it), and ENJOYABLE as MVC. take it or leave it, MVC is here to become the widely adoptable for web development. If you don't have time to learn something new then you'd be one day left behind as MVC and other development patterns evolve.
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# re: The Four Pillars of ASP.NET
Posted by Felipe Rigo
on 4/6/2009 11:55 AM

Hi,

How can I contact you?

Please, can you send me an e-mail?

'cuz the contact of the this webpage is not working...

thank you
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# re: The Four Pillars of ASP.NET
Posted by Brian
on 4/8/2009 7:50 AM

I agree with Ali - the resistance will be adversity to change + misunderstanding of how HTML/HTTP/CSS etc functions at the core. Having done web development before WebForms (in Coldfusion, PHP, Java, and some classic ASP), WebForms hides a lot of this from you. Change is always hard, but after doing MVC a bit and then switching back to WebForms, (for me) the "ugh" factor seeps in immediately and want to go back to MVC ASAP ;)

I think right now it is an option, but going forward it should be pushed as the favored option especially after it gets a bit more mature (say 2.x or so). It should also be the tool to pick up and give a whirl unless you are building a really simple application that has tight time constraints. I hope that MS makes certain that it is not a second class citizen next to WebForms, but is its equal (and eventually IMO) its better.

All IMHO of course - use the best tool for the job :)
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# re: The Four Pillars of ASP.NET
Posted by matt kocaj
on 5/4/2009 12:45 AM

@ali and @brian,

Totally agree. I think with maturity, ASP.NET MVC will become the flagship product and the standard web platform from MS (if they keep their heads screwed on). I totally empathise with the 'enjoyment' factor and the 'ugh' feeling of other clunkier approaches like webforms. MVC is great to use. I cant wait to get to work so i can continue on my web project (that's embarrassing).
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