Some Folks Just aren't getting it..

by Don Burnett

Someone said that Microsoft is getting too complex having multi-layer internet applications. If I hear another developer say "well which technology should I use?" I probably will scream. If you are an Adobe developer or someone who does basic web development I might tend to agree with you. But if you are a full fledged "Windows" developer you might think differently.

Microsoft for a long time has been working with multi-layer development for a while. Typically if you learned to write "enterprise" level applications you wave a multi-tiered application, consisting of multiple layers including a Data Layer and a Business Rules layer.

Microsoft designed most of it's technologies to be integratable such as ADO.NET with ASP.NET.. All on different levels. Adding a presentation layer like silverlight isn't unecessarily complicated but is very powerful in it's own right due to the benefits you can gleen as a developer by combining these technologies.

A point that one blogger, the Lazycoder (for instance)makes some points on his talk on the Mix 07 announcements, that he doesn't know which technology to choose. Well the brilliance of all of this is that you don't have to choose which one, you choose which ones do the best for your particular task and you can integrate them to create some really cool "mashups" with all of them together.

It does point out that one needs to know the technology strengths of each of them to know how best to integrate it. It also means as a developer you need to know your "product's audience" better. Yes it's more work if you are a "lazy coder" but you end up with a much better app in the long run that works smarter and provides a better solution and user experience for your application's consumers.

It also points out that knowing how to code in just one area probably will mean your won't get as much business in the future. It's all about growth folks, as a developer or a designer. It used to be "the early bird" gets the worm. Now it's whoever wears the most hats wins!