A step sideways? (Microsoft Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Architect Edition)

Member Name: gmuston

Product:	Microsoft Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Architect Edition
Date:	04/08/02 (580 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Single language runtime, Well rounded development platform, Choice of programming languages

Disadvantages: Alienates long-time users, Drastic changes to some functionality, Resource hog

Visual Studio.Net

Overall, this package looks like a wonderful collection of tools for the serious developer. In one box, you get several server products (Windows 2000, SQL Server, Exchange Server, BizTalk Server, Host Integration, nad Commerce Server) - all developer only versions, and you also get a nice lot of programming tools - C++, the new C# (sharp), Visual Basic, and all the 'hidden' bits, like ASP.Net, ADO.Net, Crystal Reports, etc. It sounds fantastic. So why do I feel as if I've just been handed a party manifesto by a grinning politician?

In the past, I've been happy when updates have come out for Microsoft's programming tools, because, generally, they've actually listened to what developers want.
In this case, I'm not so sure - I get the distinct impression that they've been listening to the marketing department more than the developers.

It would take far too long to list all the changes to all the languages, and to the development environments, but they're substantial enough to have any users of previous versions feeling less-than at home in the new version. That's not neccesarily a bad thing, but it does take some getting used to.

The new system has XML coming out of its ears, and does a very good job of breaking links with past development practices - for example, have fun trying to upgrade any ActiveX controls. You remember, those things that MS tried to convince us were going to replace Java applets, and were the way forward for the Internet? (admittedly, that WAS in 1995... such a long time ago...!)

My first big complaint is how much more sluggish the development environment feels.
If you have an older, slower computer to work on - e.g. PIII 800 or less - you'll experience this. Designing a form, for example, has a serious 'lag' to it, when adding new elements. Running any applications from within the development environment is a lot slower
than previous versions - so far, I've found this to be true of both Visual Basic and C++. I can't comment on C#'s performance. as this is the first version.

In all fairness, when your applications are compiled, they do tend to run slightly faster than the old versions - with a few exceptions. Certain functions, for example, file handling in Visual Basic, still exist and use more or less the same syntax, but, after much investigation, I found that new functions had been added that did exactly the same thing as the old ones - only they did it faster. Why not simply upgrade the old functions to use the new logic behind the new functions? Strange, and annoying.

C# is something that I'm still getting used to. I think I can see it gaining quite a good foothold in the market - it's a good language, and falls nicely into the gap between the ease of Visual Basic and the head-scratching of C++. It's a good competitor to Java - which makes me wonder why J# just appeared as a free download on the MS web site?

In summary, the package provides a good, solid foundation for developers to create their masterpieces on. Just about all the server elements are there, the built-in help's not too bad, and you have your pick of tools for programming. I'm sure a lot of the old school will feel a bit alienated, but there are enough good features and additions in the package to outweigh the bad - and no one is forcing anyone to switch all their existing applications to the new platform, anyway!

For web development, I'd pick ASP.Net over Visual Interdev 6 any day of the week. Finally, we have a user friendly design environment, for creating web solutions! And it supports C as the 'back end' language! (as well as VB, J#, etc)

Personally, I'm going to continue maintaining my old systems in C++ and VB version 6, and use .Net for future development.

I've reviewed the Enterprise Architect versi
on, because that's the one I've got. The 'smaller' versions contain less in the way of 'extras' (Exchange 2000's an extra?!?), but the development tools are more or less the same.

The one thing that really struck me was the size of this package. Years ago, my first copy of Visual Basic came on 3 720kb floppy disks. Now I have a development package that ships on about a dozen CD's! Funny thing, progress...

Many developers will have this bought for them, or thrust on them, by their employers. For those who are considering buying it, I'd say experiment with the free downloads and the trial versions, before you take the plunge. The market may be asking for .Net skills, but there will be a lot of older systems needing support for some time to come, no matter what MS do with their licencing agreements!
Although, all MS development departments will probably be using this within a year or so...

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