Letters from Readers
Reader Letters: Reacting to Windows 8 Developments
Andrew Brust's November Redmond Review column, "Windows 8: Times Are Changing for Developers," got reactions from readers, many of whom are still troubled about what lies ahead.
It strikes me that what Microsoft did is level the playing field -- that HTML5, C++ and .NET all are equal in the Windows 8 landscape. Now we'll see how well they do one way or the other. Each has its own challenges -- I don't think the JavaScript engine (aka Chakra) is anybody's dream solution, either. That being said, sometime in the future we might look back on this moment and say, "This was the beginning of the end for .NET."
Richard Campbell
Canada
Our achievements must be disrupted in order for us to prosper -- really? So we have to go back 10 years to pre-.NET just because of this mistaken premise? Just to be clear: writing spaghetti and unmaintainable JavaScript mangled with HTML is absolutely not the way developers want to build business applications for Windows.
Garry
Cambridge, United Kingdom
How much does it pay, this cranking out of nonsense as [a] Microsoft apologist? The truth remains that Redmond has lost its way, having run off to chase this latest false messiah, HTML5/JavaScript, all as a result of that which was Steve Jobs' greatest coup of all time, having justified his bias against Flash with false statements about HTML5 and JavaScript being the future. The most exceptional and incredibly immersive user experiences on the Web are still created via Flash, and for as long as it lasts, Silverlight. Other than insulting the intelligence of those who already know this to be the case, no amount of Redmond propaganda will create the mass delusion for which they're hoping. Looking so forward to something worthwhile rising from the ashes in Redmond once Nero's done playing his fiddle...
Anonymous
Posted Online
This all sounds great, .NET lives on … What's hiding under the covers, though, is that they're stripping out fundamental capabilities on which developers rely. For example, do you want to connect up to the databases running your off-the-shelf-package apps? Sorry, buddy... you can't do that. Don't believe me? Read this.
Jamie Thompson
Posted Online
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