Q&A with Microsoft on .NET
The following are questions posed by the editor of Developer.com as well as a number of readers from Developer.com. A few questions from CodeGuru.com were also included. This report will be updated as additional answers are provided for the unanswered questions. Answers are provided by Microsoft product people.
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A brief look at COM’s history: 7 COM (initially called OLE) is a specification for applications to interact, in a language agnostic open way. 7 The term ActiveX refers to additions to the COM specification for creating controls and for doing scriptable automation. 7 DNA was a map of how the Microsoft technologies could/should be used together as a platform to create distributed applications (all based on COM). Other useful terms: 7 DCOM = The protocol COM uses for remoting and is based on RPC. 7 COM+ = The suite of COM based services that Windows2000 provides developers for creating applications (i.e. Transactions, security, events, messaging etc) So where does .NET fit into this? The Internet offers tremendous opportunities to developers to expand the way they write programs, this in turn dramatically changes the requirements of the tools used to develop applications -if developers are to take advantage of the internets capabilities. For instance protocols: HTTP is a stateless protocol that powers the World Wide Web and the mechanism by which Web Servers communicate with clients. By contrast existing component object models are based on strongly session-based protocols that don’t lend themselves to running over the Internet.) Development tool vendors had a couple of choices: don’t run objects over the internet, mandate servers also run their additional protocols (and which really weren’t designed for they loosely coupled world of the internet) or the route Microsoft choose to take with .NET, work with the developer community and come up with a set of standards to run objects over HTTP (For more information on this aspect of the .NET Framework please see books or articles on the topic “SOAP” or Simple Object Access Protocol). Is this a departure from COM? Absolutely, our customers indicated they needed a different set of features for creating applications over the Internet and the .NET Framework was the result. That is not to say Microsoft abandoning the skills and applications developers have already invested in; using COM objects from within the .NET Framework (or using .NET objects from with a COM based application) is no harder than it was before but now with there is the added benefit that objects can now be accessed over the Internet as XML Web Services. Finally to the question asked: So what is to keep Microsoft from abandoning the .NET as an Initiative in the next 2, 3 or 6 years (95-Now)? The design of the .NET Framework lends itself to responding to customers needs. If in the future customers do indicate the Internet isn’t what they need for development (as unlikely as that may be), SOAP may play a less important role but the architecture of the .NET Framework is modular so new languages, protocols etc can easily be incorporated and meet the demands of future developers. |
Question from Bud. P. (System Integrator) I’ve invested a considerable amount of time learning MFC and Win32 programming. Just as I feel I’m grasping the pertinent concepts I’m thrown a curve ball called .NET (with a whole new Language under the covers). Are the skills I’ve acquired now antiquated? Do I need to learn .NET and C# to be a productive member of the development community? Everyone talks .NET as though we’ve just emerged from a Cave and now we have light. Heck, I was just gaining vision in the Cave. |
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If there are only two things developers should understand about .NET: 1. Open protocols & standards are going to expand how we develop applications (namely through XML Web Services) 2. Your existing skills and investments are still relevant and valuable. For example the question was raised: “Do I need to learn .NET and C# to be a productive member of the development community?” The answer is Absolutely NOT!! -Let your skill set choose the language you program in: be it- Cobol, VB, C++ or whatever. |
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Developers do not have to learn C#, however C# was designed to provide the computing power of the C++ language and the ease of use of its own Visual Basic language. Microsoft predicts this power and function will allow developers to fully utilize the potential of its new .NET Platform, created to help developers more easily build and maintain Web applications. And MS feels once developers get an opportunity to experience its power and productivity, C# will rise in popularity. |
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A couple I highly recommend: Avoiding DLL Hell: Introducing Application Metadata in the Microsoft .NET Framework <netresources/metadata/metadata.htm>” by Matt Pietrek, MSDN Magazine, Oct. 2000 is reprinted by permission. Copyright 2000 Microsoft Corp. and CMP Media, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information on MSDN Magazine, please visit <http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag>. “Garbage Collection: Automatic Memory Management in the Microsoft .NET Framework <netresources/GCI/garbagecollection.htm>” by Jeffrey Richter, MSDN Magazine, Nov. 2000 is reprinted by permission. Copyright 2000 Microsoft Corp. and CMP Media, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information on MSDN Magazine, please visit <http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag>. “Microsoft .NET Framework Delivers the Platform for an Integrated, Service-Oriented Web <netresources/framework/framework.htm>” by Jeffrey Richter, MSDN Magazine, Sept. 2000 is reprinted by permission. Copyright 2000 Microsoft Corp. and CMP Media, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information on MSDN Magazine, please visit <http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag>. “Part 2: Microsoft .NET Framework Delivers the Platform for an Integrated, Service-Oriented Web <netresources/framework2/Framework2.htm>” by Jeffrey Richter, MSDN Magazine, Oct. 2000 is reprinted by permission. Copyright 2000 Microsoft Corp. and CMP Media, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information on MSDN Magazine, please visit <http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag>. “The Programmable Web: Web Services Provides Building Blocks for the Microsoft .NET Framework <netresources/webplatform/WebPlatform.htm>” by Mary Kirtland, MSDN Magazine, Sept. 2000 is reprinted by permission. Copyright 2000 Microsoft Corp. and CMP Media, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information on MSDN Magazine, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag. |
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I would like to get a basic concept of .NET architecture. Where is a good place to go for information? Developer.com Editor comment: Our CodeGuru.com site contains information on C#, Visual C++, and Visual Basic. This includes .NET related information. We also offer a C# newsletter–CodeGuru C#/.Net Tech Notes–available at newsletters.internet.com in the EarthWeb channel. |
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This site is an MSDN reference for .NET technical articles and probably the best place to start: This one is .NET Framework Developers Guide: This site is Visual Studio.NET Beta 1 Evaluation Guide Download: |
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Info on obtaining the beta is found at: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/nextgen/beta.asp |
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Will Web Services and .NET trap everyone into a system with continual costs being incurred at every step? The trend across the entire internet towards ‘pay-per-view’ services is a very disturbing one indeed. Won’t such charges end up being negative to the end-user? |
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In simple terms, what is .NET? Who in the development community will be impacted by .NET? |
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Who in the development community will be impacted by .NET? |
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This isn’t really a question to be passed onto Microsoft… [Is there a reason to] go with the Vignette/Oracle approach for site management as opposed to the .NET architecture or even products like Open Market or Broadvision. We would like to introduce distributed authoring and dynamic content distribution. I was just wondering [how .NET could help in this area verses these other products]. Does the .NET architecture have any real (or perceived) shortcomings in this area? |
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What .NET services will be available on other platforms (Linux / Solaris) and what is the time schedule for it? Will the basic economy for .NET be based on a yearly rent? Will the XML part be open, meaning that non-MS applications can access and use XML data generated with MS tools? |
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The editors at Developer.com and CodeGuru.com would like to thank the people at Microsoft and Waggener Edstrom for taking the time to provide these and future answers.
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