No offense to any “real” programmers reading this, but you are a special breed – and you know it. Of all the various “sorcerers” in the IT trade, programmers have been the most mysterious for the longest time. But from what I’ve seen coming out of Microsoft recently, those days could soon be over. The level of sophistication in the soon-to-be-released ASP.Net Version 2.0 combined with the drag-and-drop approach of Visual Studio 2005 puts sophisticated Web and database programming within the reach of many more IT professionals.
OK, so why should network professionals care? Some of you won’t, but I suspect that there are many of you who, over the years, have had visions of possible intranet applications that would help you do your job better – perhaps “inventory” applications of network assets.
Unless you were lucky enough to stumble upon the “perfect” package that implemented what you required, you typically were forced to justify the cost of using in-house programmers, with the cost and time delay that usually entailed, or live with a bare-bones “system” built around Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access with a few forms or reports.
And, while Microsoft certainly prefers that users make SQL Server their database of choice, the company has done a fine job of making Access into a very powerful – and easy-to-use – database engine. And, while one can use Access “Data Access Pages” to build a Web browser interface into Access, it does not provide the flexibility offered by a full-fledged programming environment.
With the introduction of ASP.Net 1.0 and now ASP.Net 2.0, code-named “Whidbey,” Microsoft has, in my opinion, finally brought the power of programming into the realm of smart people who are not full-time programmers.
The product is still in beta, but working code and the new interactive development environments are available at ASP.net.
In a way, it’s like the change that took place in PC internetworking with the introduction of plug-and-play features. Before that time, a network “wizard” was required to provide the most basic connectivity – the installation of a network interface card (NIC).
Remember what had to be done? If the NIC were ISA, you might have to set switches physically. In any case, the installation typically involved loading an array of software and then “hand tooling” entries in the config.sys and sometimes the autoexec.bat files to load the drivers – making sure that the software settings were in sync with the hardware settings. It could cost more to install the NIC than to purchase it.
Plug-and-play built the “smarts” into the system. Any user could physically plug in a NIC to take over a job that used to require calling tech support or a value-added reseller.
Taking this same approach with programming is a much bigger job, of course. And, it has taken a much longer time. ASP.Net 1.0 in 2000 was a giant leap forward.
It was a “revolution not an evolution,” and while existing developers might not have been happy to have to “relearn” the Active Server Pages environment (as it was a radical break with ASP 3.0), Microsoft deserves credit for taking a fresh look at the challenge of programming today.
Version 2.0, though, brings innovations such as Master Pages, code-less database access and, importantly, streamlined Web Development environment that can trigger a flood of new development. Check it out.
