Ninjamurai

Microsoft has released a refresh of the preview of ASP.Net MVC. Go to Codeplex to get it.

MVC is the “way”. Finally, Microsoft is getting on this bandwagon and thanks to them for really listening to the customer and feedback. Though Ruby on Rails is still the “best” way to do this sort of thing, the Microsoft ASP.Net answer looks to hold much promise.

Sometimes, people ask me to justify just why I say Microsoft is about 4 years behind in technology. I can not think of a better example of this than Heroku, a Ruby on Rails web host.

• Cloud Computing
• Instant App Creation and Editing
• Ruby on Rails Native
• Live Code Editing and Database Modification
• Completely Elastic Cloud using Amazon S3 and uh, the Elastic Cloud
• So Easy it is Frightning

Microsoft does not even come close to competing with this type of thought process. While they may be good in some fields, they are so out of touch with modern web programming and design, it will take them years to get ASP.Net to where Ruby was 4 years ago. This Heroku company just took Microsoft’s Web Hosting Partners and kicked them not just to the curb, but instead kicked them off the planet.

If you program and plan on continuing as a programmer for the next few years and you do the web app gig, you really, really need to do at least some Ruby on Rails and Cloud stuff.

Every time I go over to Microsoft and see my friends that work there, I feel like Cassandra. No one listens or if they do they just smile, nod and turn going back to doing what they always have done. Then, one day, sometime about 2 or 3 years from now, they will decide “OH! Look that Cloud thing is cool. Let’s do that now. Who can we copy?” 

We see this now with the ASP.Net MVC project’s wholesale theft borrowing of just about every idea in Ruby on Rails from 2 years ago or so. The current Ruby on Rails thought not so much, they are probably having too hard a time reverse engineering the older stuff.

I would certainly expect Microsoft to continue this trend and they sure seem to be living up to that expectation. Look at LINQ and ADO.Net Entity Framework. They act as though this stuff is new and hot and they invented the Sun and Moon. Uh, I hate to break it to them, but Hibernate and WebObjects (introduced in 1994) and others have been doing this for YEARS, like 14 years, so don’t get all superior on me there buddy.  Wow, that’s some innovation, 14 years and you are finally releasing what we have been doing with NeXTSTEP and OS X all along. Nice. Sigh…

So, to sum it up. Once again, Microsoft shows they do not innovate–they copy and don’t copy well at that. This might be fine if they didn’t shout from every rooftop that they do.

Sadly, this is a lie.

I am learning the ASP.Net MVC Framework and, while I do like it, I have to wonder how much of my time I want to put into it. Probably a lot, since I do enjoy it greatly, but let me let you into a bit of my thought process here…

See, I work with Ruby On Rails as well and it is what ASP.Net MVC is being based on. Now, here’s the rub.

1. RoR has been out since July of 2004, so 3.5 years or so. I am watching the .Net team make the same mistakes and try to analyze the same issues that RoR has already done. Granted, they may come up with different solutions but…

2. I am watching people who DO NOT think MVC work on a system that is supposed to implement MVC. Sure, they understand it from a Computer Science point of view, but that is like saying you understand how good a chocolate 3 layer cake with Ghiradelli chocolate is because you can cook even though you have never tasted it. You can make EDUCATED assumptions, but you truly don’t KNOW. That is the difference here.

3. Microsoft tends to overengineer everything they do. They add feature on top of feature just to do it without thinking about should they do it. They really need to listen to Jeff Goldblum’s quote from Jurrassic Park:

I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here:
It didn’t require any discipline to attain it.
You read what others had done and you took the next step.
You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves,
so you don’t take any responsibility for it.

Now, seriously that is a bit much and I realize there are some really good people working on this project. It merely concerns me that this is something these people DO NOT BELIEVE IN. They are doing it because it is selling now. All the best web frameworks and programming systems are doing it. We need to do it. THAT is the problem.

In short, I am not sure Microsoft can make a go of this. Sure, they will release something, but will it work or will it just be a messed up version of a copied Ruby on Rails. Microsoft just does NOT do simple. They do complex, hard, over-engineered REALLY well, but not simple. RoR is simple.

So far, they are really trying to listen to the community and take feedback well. Scott is a good man and his team are trying to do the right thing by the community. We will have to see how this pans out.

I have worked for years to teach people to program in MVC. This is how things should be done and many of us have worked for years on top of years to move this into the public eye. I see Microsoft doing this now and I have to think, “So, what about all those times at Azteca and Thai Tom you told me that MVC was stupid and silly? What about those conversations now?” Many of us in the MVC community feel like this song is really coming true:

It’s been a long night, trying to find my way.
Been through the darkness, now I finally have my day.
I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.
And they’re not gonna hold me down no more, no they’re not gonna change my mind.

Ok, a bit dramatic but…