Microsoft Releases ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview
The Model View Controller (MVC) architecture is valued for its enforced separation
of concerns in development. In Web development, MVC breaks apps into interfaces
(views), business logic (models) and a controller that moderates the traffic
flow. This approach is hugely useful for enterprise-scale development, where
code maintenance and unit-level QA become paramount.
The MVC architecture has long been used in Web app frameworks like Ruby on
Rails and Apache Struts. Now, Microsoft is pushing ASP.NET Web application development
in the direction of MVC, with the release of the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions.
As RDN Senior Editor Kathleen Richards reported
Monday, the addition of MVC within ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions could plug a big
hole in Microsoft's Web development story.
"ASP.NET is so easy to use for the rapid app developer, but for the enterprise
folks, the people who need to build maintainable code, ASP.NET is a nightmare
because of the design style that Microsoft did," said Don Demsak, a New
Jersey-based .NET solutions consultant and blogger (www.donxml.com).
"It was originally designed for the original VB6 crowd -- using WinForms
-- to switch over to the Internet. They did a lot of techniques to make it seamless
for them but in taking those shortcuts, in dealing with that encapsulation there,
it made it harder to maintain, especially for folks who like to use design patterns
to build their code."
Microsoft's Developer Division GM Scott Guthrie said developers can continue
to work in the Web Forms component control-driven model of ASP.NET, but with
ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions, the option to adopt MVC design patterns is now there.
Developers can even choose to use both in the same application, Guthrie said.
So what will you do? Is the MVC model in ASP.NET something you expect to move
to in the coming months? E-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 12/12/2007