The Worst of the .NET 1.x Years

It’s been a wild ride for the last 5 years. We’ve seen the best - what about the worst?

1)Visual Basic.NET

The problem isn’t with the language – VB is a great language, and I’m not formulating my “best and worst lists” based on technology virtues alone, but on the “experience”.

The controversy over Visual Basic.NET started before the product’s release date. Then came the salary surveys, the misinformation, disinformation, statistics, lies, videotapes, benchmarks, whining, moaning, and gnashing of teeth.

The debate over the merits of this language seem to be in an infinite loop.

Bill Vaughn is right: Microsoft should have named the new language B#. Same language – different name – it would be a success story.

2)Managed C++

Being a former C++ __type myself, I investigated the __new managed __extensions. __For some __reason I could __never __warm __up to the __syntax. I hear^ there are^ some changes^ in store^ for 2005.

3) Tight Coupling of Visual Studio to IIS

With an ASP.NET project, have you ever…
… had the wwwroot$ share disappear?
… wrestled with front page server extensions?
… seen an entire folder disappear?
… tried to put the project under source control?
… tricked Visual Studio into thinking the project isn’t really a web project?
… built the project with an automated build engine? No - no - without Nant!
… debugged as non-admin?
… been unable to open a web project?
… seen a ‘web access failed’ error message?
… had a problem moving a web project from one computer to the other?
… created a web application without admin privs?

This too shall pass in 2.0

4) IDisposable

If I had a dime for every time the intricacies of IDisposable were explained in newsgroups, mailing lists, conference halls, chat rooms, bathrooms, and blogs – I’d buy myself a Formula One race car, and drive it 6 days a week on my own private racetrack.

Then to find out there is special case reference counting in the framework...

5) Smart Clients

Despite all the hype – smart clients seem to have gained very little traction in the 1.x timeframe. Smart clients are once again poised to take the world by storm with Click-Once deployment in 2.0. Where has the love been for the HREF EXE? Do you think we can write an application like World Wind with AJAX?

The above opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of anyone else I know.