Wanting to invest in Code Generator. Which ones you feel are best?
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Hi, I'm not new to programming, but fairly new to .NET (I'm an old timer). I've been teaching myself C# since I am an old C/Unix programmer and thought it was a better alternative to VB. I've been scouting around for the last month to invest in a RAD tool, and there are some application generators that I have reviewed. So far I've checked out DeKlarit, DevForce, and IronSpeed. The latter is nice but I don't necessarily want to do web apps only. I also own Infragistics controls, so it must be compatible with them. There is quite a price range in these three above, and they all seem to have their pluses and minuses, but I feel it would be worth the investment to get a tool to give me a jump start on some larger scale applications without the huge investment of time in developing my own home grown application framework. Plus at my skill level, my first cut wouldn't be very good anyway. I would appreciate any comments from individuals with experience with the above products, what you think of them, what the strengths and weaknesses, and if you recommend it (please specify what version you own, i.e. basic, professional, enterprise). I would also like to hear about others that I haven't yet reviewed that you found to be preferable. Thank you in advance! John L. Miller
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Hi, I'm not new to programming, but fairly new to .NET (I'm an old timer). I've been teaching myself C# since I am an old C/Unix programmer and thought it was a better alternative to VB. I've been scouting around for the last month to invest in a RAD tool, and there are some application generators that I have reviewed. So far I've checked out DeKlarit, DevForce, and IronSpeed. The latter is nice but I don't necessarily want to do web apps only. I also own Infragistics controls, so it must be compatible with them. There is quite a price range in these three above, and they all seem to have their pluses and minuses, but I feel it would be worth the investment to get a tool to give me a jump start on some larger scale applications without the huge investment of time in developing my own home grown application framework. Plus at my skill level, my first cut wouldn't be very good anyway. I would appreciate any comments from individuals with experience with the above products, what you think of them, what the strengths and weaknesses, and if you recommend it (please specify what version you own, i.e. basic, professional, enterprise). I would also like to hear about others that I haven't yet reviewed that you found to be preferable. Thank you in advance! John L. Miller
I remember anticipating the arrival of FrontPage. When it finally arrived I jumped on it and WSIWYGed a page up pronto. Then I had to manually modify the code to apply a feature the designer didn't support. I opened the code for the first time, puked, closed FrontPage and never used it again. IMHO Visual Studio is the premier development environment for doing Windows development. The small amount of code generators built into VS works for me. To generate the remainder of the code I invoke my brain and use the keyboard to generate the results.
led mike
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I remember anticipating the arrival of FrontPage. When it finally arrived I jumped on it and WSIWYGed a page up pronto. Then I had to manually modify the code to apply a feature the designer didn't support. I opened the code for the first time, puked, closed FrontPage and never used it again. IMHO Visual Studio is the premier development environment for doing Windows development. The small amount of code generators built into VS works for me. To generate the remainder of the code I invoke my brain and use the keyboard to generate the results.
led mike
I understand what you are talking about, but my situation may be different than yours. I spent the last 15 years primarily as a Visual FoxPro independent developer, and I learned it from scratch, in my spare time. It took me two years. I developed into one the premier VFP developers in my region. Well, the writing is on the wall and Fox is dying a rather quick death now. Back in the early days of my FoxPro experience, I bought a framework and just like you, found it full of fluff. But it did help me develop my own base classes that handled database issue, especially multi-user concerns. This was worth the price of admission alone. That set of base classes evolved over time but was used in nearly every application I wrote since then. As as independent, I do not enjoy an employer sponsored educational process. I must get quickly productive. At 46, I do not have the energy level to moonlight after hours every day after my normal 60 hour week. What I am hoping for is to find the best code generator for me, whatever it may be, then lift the hood and see what makes it tick. I'm a very visual learner and would quickly catch on and find ways to improve upon it. However, to start from scratch and figure out things like how to handle record contention when there are tools out there to produce a working copy for me, this is not a desirable route for me. Thank you.
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I understand what you are talking about, but my situation may be different than yours. I spent the last 15 years primarily as a Visual FoxPro independent developer, and I learned it from scratch, in my spare time. It took me two years. I developed into one the premier VFP developers in my region. Well, the writing is on the wall and Fox is dying a rather quick death now. Back in the early days of my FoxPro experience, I bought a framework and just like you, found it full of fluff. But it did help me develop my own base classes that handled database issue, especially multi-user concerns. This was worth the price of admission alone. That set of base classes evolved over time but was used in nearly every application I wrote since then. As as independent, I do not enjoy an employer sponsored educational process. I must get quickly productive. At 46, I do not have the energy level to moonlight after hours every day after my normal 60 hour week. What I am hoping for is to find the best code generator for me, whatever it may be, then lift the hood and see what makes it tick. I'm a very visual learner and would quickly catch on and find ways to improve upon it. However, to start from scratch and figure out things like how to handle record contention when there are tools out there to produce a working copy for me, this is not a desirable route for me. Thank you.
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Ok well like I said I have no experience to tell you about but I have seen members on this site speaking well of Iron Speed. Good luck, oh and that writing about VFP was on the wall like 10 years ago. ;)
led mike
LOL, yeah, I know. There was a mass exodus out of VFP when .Net was released leaving a giant vacuum of unsupported clients and abandoned applications. I've made tons of money since then filling this need and even to this day am extremely busy, but I got back on the leading edge with my Sharepoint 2007 experience. Now it's time to fill in everything in between and I should be in decent shape. Thanks for your replies. Good luck.