Stuck with .net
Leaving .net by Dave Newman struck a cord with me. I’ve been using Microsoft technologies professionally since 1994. One of my client’s platform (still have him to this day) evolved over time from Excel to Access to SQL Server with an ASP.NET front end. Most of my income is from these long term clients whose businesses run on the .net platform.
.Net Used to be Fun
Getting started with .net for me was a lot of fun. That’s because it’s how I learned web technologies and evolved away from the desktop. My gut said that the web was going to be far more important than the desktop and fortunately I was right.
But years later working on stable platforms, my work is mostly just maintenance. Adding a new report here. Adding new business logic there. Sometimes I get to add a new feature or two (“can we run those refunds directly through authorize.net?”).
It’s nothing exciting of course. But it pays the bills. And I’ve done this so long now that I can get what I need done efficiently and quickly.
But it’s nothing exciting. Even with ASP.NET MVC which is sort of a breath of fresh air, there’s no way for me to go back and rewrite my clients’ applications in this framework. Maybe I’ll use it for new projects, but even though it’s “better” than ASP.NET forms it still feels a few years behind some of the more cutting edge platforms.
I crave the excitement that I see in the Ruby on Rails and Python communities. I dabbled a bit in RoR a couple of years ago. The project didn’t go very far but I really liked the Ruby community who responded quickly to my questions.
.Net’s Lack of Community
The thin .net community is definitely a problem for me. For example I asked a question on StackOverflow regarding iCal a few days ago. I think SO is currently the most active community for .Netters. No response. Not a one. Googled for hours and can’t find any sort of answer.
If I was working in Ruby, there’s a whole library for dealing with iCal with what looks like excellent documentation. That looks a lot more appealing to me than the cone of silence I received in .net
But I can’t just jump ship from my current work. It pays the bills. My clients like me and depend on me.
So What Do I Do Tomorrow?
Now here’s my dilemma. I have a new project idea that I would like to move forward with. Do I write it in ASP.NET MVC which I know pretty well? Or do I take the leap and learn/write the new thing in RoR or Python? I know that if I pick one of these newer platforms it will take me a lot longer to get up and running because of the learning curve. I’m tempted (once again) just to dive in with .net because that’s what I understand. But I’ll still be suck with .net.
