One of the real tragedies in adult life is that some times you get a new toy before Christmas and your adult responsibilities preclude you from getting to play with it.  Such is the case with the new MVC Framework for ASP.NET which I was as excited as anyone about but which I haven't gotten to spend more than an hour or so with due to gift shopping/travel planning/etc...

That said I have gotten to play with it a little and there was something I wanted to say.  A while back, Mads Kristensen made a post about the MVC Framework entitled "Dangers of the new ASP.NET MVC framework".  In it he said...

Because the MVC framework is a much stricter environment it will have effect on who is going to use it. The professional and hardcore developers will love it for all its advantages, but what about the hobby developers? To say it in another way, if the MVC only attracts the great developers what will happen to the good ones?

The great developers care deeply about abstraction and testability and they will probably use the MVC framework for any new project they start building. The good and hobby developers probably won’t – in fact they might never feel attracted due to the strict nature of the framework. They might think of it as more complex which I would agree with to some extend.

If we for a moment believe that it is what’s going to happen, then we end up with a developer divide in the ASP.NET work force. Some companies hire MVC developers which now only covers a portion of the work force. The other companies who use standard ASP.NET might not be attractive to MVC developers and will only reach the other portion. With the current developer labour shortage where both great and good developers are needed I can foresee trouble.

He goes on to talk about how he foresees a divide in the developer community  where professional developers no longer interact with hobbyists because they each have their own community based on their own specific flavor of ASP.Net

I have to admit, when I read this post I thought he was over reacting.  But having taken some time with the framework I have to say he had a darn good point. 

It isn't that a lot has changed but what has changed is the most fundamental parts of the ASP.NET environment.  The Web Forms way of doing things almost completely revolves around its handling of state while the MVC doesn't use any of that infrastructure.  Worse yet, I honestly don't have a solution to the problem he presents.  How do you get people to interact on what they have in common while being separated by what they don't?

What I would suggest is that Microsoft needs to work on branding the MVC Framework in a way that will let newbies know the difference between it and traditional Web Forms because once MVC books start hitting the market there's going to be a lot of confusion out there in the hobbyist/starter category.  Given the confusion that is probably guaranteed to come from this they should at least try to negate any confusion that they can.  Beyond that I guess we all just have to wait.  Maybe one standard will take over or maybe the MVC Framework will finally draw some of those Rails developers over to the dark side and create a community twice as big (so that the split won't matter).  I don't know but it should be interesting to watch. 

I haven't had a lot of time to play with the new MVC Framework due to work issues that have arisen but I did run across one post that I wanted to comment on.  In his post "Is MVC right for you?" Phil Winstanley does everything in his power to prove that it is in fact not right for you.  He concludes his post by saying...

So, to summarise: -

• It's important that people understand Web Forms are not being abandoned by Microsoft.
• MVC is not perfect.
• MVC is not easy (if you're a Web Forms person already).
• You will have a choice moving forward of using Web Forms or MVC with you applications.

Please, if you're going to flame me, let me know first and I'll turn off the central heating.

I'm a big MVC supporter but honestly I agree with Mr. Winstanley for the most part.  I think the advantages of the MVC framework have been oversold at this point and I certainly don't think it is worth it to rewrite most applications.  Nor do I think it is worth it for developers who are comfortable in Web Forms to abandon what works for them.

The way I see it the MVC Framework has two advantages:

1. If you've always felt uncomfortable with Web Forms and the MVC approach makes more sense to you.  This is where I fit in and this is where I think a lot of people with a Computer Science background who haven't already been immersed in Web Forms will probably fit in.  Web Forms does a lot to abstract what is actually going on and if you are intimately aware of those goings on it becomes very distracting.
2. If you are planning a massive ASP.NET application (and by massive I mean either in code base or user base).  The MVC approach does provide a performance increase and it does make testing a lot easier (and in fact makes some testing possible that wasn't in web forms).  But in 97% of ASP.NET applications Web Forms will provide adequate performance and adequate testing abilities (I made 97% up off the top of my head btw but its a reasonable approximation) . 

I guess what I'm saying is this: If you have to wonder if MVC is right for you than it probably isn't.  The MVC Framework is something that many people have been waiting for in ASP.NET and those are the people it is right for.  I'd suggest that anyone interested play with it to see how they feel about it but there's certainly no need to jump ship on Web Forms anytime soon.

I certainly had my pick of blogs from which to quote this news from but I liked Bil Simer's delivery the most...

You've read about it on the Internet, you've seen us talking about it, and if you were at DevTeach last week you soaked up Justice's inhuman presentation (and Jeffrey's more than human one) on the tool you'll know what the buzz this week is. Now you can see what the hype is all about.

The ASP.NET MVC addition is now available here.

So there it is.  You have to hand it to the team working on this for obviously working over the weekend and getting it out (by my clock) 5 hours early.

The download is going painfully slow but not even that can't contain my giddiness.  Honestly, though I admire what the Web Forms team has done and I understand that it made things infinitely easier for Windows Developers who were transitioning over I personally have never been that comfortable with the current model. 

For me it has always been hard to accept that part of the process was being not only kept from me but actually changed to look like something else.  You could almost say it caused the Developer side of my brain and the IT side of my brain to be in constant conflict as the IT side constantly told the Developer side to not trust what it was being told by Visual Studio (how's that for an over dramatic description)

The MVC method of doing things makes a lot more sense to me.  In fact it is one of those rare occasions where something that feels good is actually good for you in that I hope to get some significant performance gains out of this change as well. 

In the end, I'm sure I'll still be working with Web Forms for years to come but this will be a nice change of pace for any new projects. 

For me, there is very little in this life worse than being upset about something when there is no one on earth to blame for it.  Such is the case with the new MVC Framework that was supposed to be released on Friday but now won't see the light of day until at least Monday.  Here's the quote from Scott Guthrie (gotten via Troy Goode)

Quick update to everyone - we found a last minute bug late last night, and had to-do a rebuild of the bits.  This unfortunately means we won't go live today as origionally planned.  The team is working hard, though, to try and get it out ASAP (they will be here this weekend finishing the test pass).  

I'll do a blog post announcing it as soon as it is live.  As penance I'm also doing a long Part 4 blog post this weekend that covers editing and form posting scenarios, which combined with the first three tutorial posts should provide a pretty good foundation for working with the bits.

Many apologies for the delay - almost there now though,

Scott

So...

Again, you can't really blame them for a bug, every project has bugs, and you can't really blame them for holding up the release which is exactly what they should be doing.  All you can really do is stew in your own juices and go back to working on your (now seemingly bland) web forms projects. 

The one thing I would like to say (and it goes back to the points I made in this post) is to again complain about all the MVC posts leading up to now.  As I said before I don't really blame them for their enthusiasm but what all that enthusiasm has done is to build up developer anticipation which makes a delay like this sting all the more.  If they had embargoed all those posts until after the release people would be a lot less annoyed now. 

Though I’ve watched all the MVC blog posts from inside Microsoft with great interest I have to wonder if the developers are doing the right thing by evangelizing the subject right now.  For those who don’t know the MVC (Model-View-Controller) Framework would allow ASP.NET developers to do a better job at separating different parts of their programs which in turn would make the programs easier to test and update because they would be distinct components that could be changed without upsetting all the other distinct components. 

For those who would care and want to know more you should check out Scott Guthrie’s Fantastic post on the subject (just be sure to set aside some time as it is 33 pages printed out)

Back to the point, the MVC Framework is not available yet.  So while I am very interested in the blog posts outlining how to do stuff in the MVC Framework I can’t “follow along on my own”.  I’m all for one post explaining the basics of the Framework but beyond that you’re just taunting your future user base and giving them information that they can’t at all use. 

I understand the people involved here are (rightfully) enthusiastic and want to share that with the world but if I were them I’d show a little restraint and embargo all these articles until there is at least a CTP for us developers.

P.S.  Only slightly related but just for the record, I’ve yet to actually start using my brand new Visual Studio 2008.  I’m dying to try it out but I like to ease into each new version with a good book on the topic and my Apress books (Beginner and Pro) shipped on the same day as the RTM so they won’t get here until tomorrow.