What's the big deal with ALT.NET, anyway?

Pawel Krakowiak

Philip Laureano wrote:

does that make me an "ALT.ALT.NET" member

Not really, I would say SHIFT.ALT.NET.

Shog9 0

Philip Laureano wrote:

And lastly, if I really don't care which among the two approaches (e.g., Microsoft vs ALT.NET) seems to work and I just want to get the job done with the best tool for the job, does that make me an "ALT.ALT.NET" member?

Heh. Like so many things [*cough* Agile], this seems to have started down the road to caricature as soon as it was given a name. Which isn't to say there's not something valuable to be found in it: sad to say, all too many programmers have spent their years on Windows using Microsoft tools and rarely look beyond either, shunning tools that might well save them significant amounts of time and money. If it takes a dumb name to shine a light into those dark corners, then so be it.

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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.

Roger Alsing 0

My guess is that there are multiple reasons why ALT.NET exists. * People are not pleased with some of the MS technologies and thus want to use something else * It's a bit hip and elite'ish to be in that kind of group * Some OS devs are affraid that their own beloved frameworks will die out if people start using MS frameworks, so they try to push their own stuff in this channel in order to not lose their fame and glory * They are making a statement, "hey MS, you have to improve your stuff"

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Bob Nadler

I've also watched alt.net: ALT.NET for the Rest of Us[^]. They've had a lot of discussion about the 'alternative' in the name. I don't think they're as 'alt' as they think they are. As a matter of fact, I think they're actually pretty main stream -- most are using Microsoft enterprise technologies and just trying to improve design and development methodologies. Like you say: nothing new. Bob on Medical Device Software [^]

peterchen

I see what you mean. Their statements are so generic they could also have written: 1. I am not Wally 2. I am not a Troglodyte 3. I write code ALT.NET means many things to many people and the debate will continue about what it means to you. Why should THEY discuss what alt.net means to ME? Don't they have anything better to do? being diametrically opposed to some of Microsoft's practices I wouldn't even give them that much credit.

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Todd Smith

ALT.NET has been preaching the MVC pattern for ages and how long did it take Microsoft to follow suit?

Todd Smith

peterchen

Shog9 wrote:

down the road to caricature as soon as it was given a name. Which isn't to say there's not something valuable to be found in it:

Well said. Apparently, you are good at wellsaying stuff.

Burning Chrome ^ | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist

Shog9 0

Must be all the time i spent in that well as a boy... :~

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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.

Robert Royall

What I got from it was, ALT.NET are people who like developing for the .NET framework but don't necessarily want to be locked into only Microsoft tooling for various reasons (doesn't exist, doesn't work well, doesn't scale well, etc). Hence the development and use of ALTernatives like Nhibernate (MS has Entity Framework), NUnit (MS has Team Foundation Unit Testing), Castle Windsor (MS has ASP.NET MVC), etc. That was the original idea anyway, I don't know what the heck they're doing now.

Imagine that you are hired to build a bridge over a river which gets slightly wider every day; sometimes it shrinks but nobody can predict when. Your client provides no concrete or steel, only timber and cut stone (but they won't tell you what kind). The coefficient of gravity changes randomly from hour to hour, as does the viscosity of air. Your only tools are a hacksaw, a chainsaw, a rubber mallet, and a length of rope. Welcome to my world. -Me explaining my job to an engineer

PIEBALDconsult

That would be Nissan's version.