An Even Playing Field

Why should every Windows programmer have to spend time re-developing menus that are similar across applications? Why should web services that practically every Web application uses require re-writing and re-writing every time? Why should choosing a programming language be such a fate-filled decision? Why should it be inevitable that almost any piece of code cause "memory leaks"?

If you think the answer to all these questions should be, 'No! Shouldn't!" then Microsoft .NET is the technology for you.

In a nutshell, .NET provides the following advantages:

• Common programming chores such as menus, dialog boxes, database access, and more, have been pre-programmed.
• The logic of your Visual Basic, J++, C++ or C# application will be exactly the same, making it entirely a matter of personal taste which you use--and an application can consist of modules written in several or all of these languages, seamlessly and effortlessly stitched together.
• You will not need to write "setup" or deployment programs for your application; deployment is built into the framework, including automatic deployment over the web.
• Executable files will be much smaller, making for quicker distribution and installation
• Memory leaks will not exist, as all memory management is handled by the .NET framework.
• ASP (Active Server Pages) will separate HTML and code segments, making the programs much easier to read and debug; the VBSCRIPT code will now look exactly the same as VB.NET code, meaning the same training will apply in both arenas.
• Previously-written ActiveX components can still be used by your .NET programs; .NET components can be utilized by your Visual C++ 6.0 or Visual Basic 6.0 applications, allowing you to move into .NET programming as completely or timidly as you wish.

The cost is that everything has changed. MFC looks very different; Visual Basic looks very different. And, of course, Microsoft C# is a completely new language. So you will need training to get up to speed with this new technology.