Visual Disaster

The decision to make the investment to switch development platforms, historically, occurred based on technological advancements that solved “real” (and not some perceived future) needs of our customers. Since the customer benefits exceeded transition cost, companies and developers decided willingly to change platforms.

Over the past 30 years I went from assembler programming on PDP-11 to C, ADA, COBOL, C++, Revelation, Progress, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic, SQL Server and Visual Studio Version 6.0. Each transition pales in comparison to short lived excitement of Visual Studio 2003 which has rapidly declined to pure and justifible hatred for Visual Studio 2008. I'm convinced this is the only development suite I use that gets worse instead of better with each release.

With Visual Studio the justification for transitioning to the new BLOATED world of .NET simply is not there for the majority of customers, despite Microsoft’s spin and marketing campaign code named smoke and mirrors. This fact is evidenced by the seer volumes of names on the failed VB and VFP petitions drives. It became apparent, that both the Visual Basic and FoxPro communities were not going to embrace BLOATWARE willingly like Microsoft has hoped. In a self-serving arrogant revenue driven fashion, Microsoft issued an end of life for the Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro product lines in order to get out from beneath the royalty free distribution model of VB/VFP, gain acceptance of Visual Studio and couple new custom applications to the Windows operating systems via dot BLOAT. (See prior weblog entry on this fact)

When developers didn’t get on the Visual Studio bandwagon, Microsoft started releasing updated technologies, namely Office, SQL Server 2008 and to a lesser extent Vista (does anyone actually use Vista?) that aren’t 100% backward compatible with Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro thereby further forcing the transition to occur.

Left with no other viable Microsoft alternatives developers are forced into implementing this BLOATED monstrosity called Visual Studio for small and medium size business applications where it does not fit and only as a last resort. The true niche for Visual Studio is large scale enterprise based applications, not the VB/VFP void Microsoft created ! I'm so right on this point as usual, Soma recently blogged about Microsoft giving away Visual Studio to small businesses. Not surprising Soma's spin is, Microsoft Monopoly INC. helping the "little guy" when the reality is no one in this niche is buying VS therefore let's give it away since we can't sell it and maybe someone just might use it.

The bottom line is honest developers want the right solution for our customers. Visual FoxPro and Visual Basic with some ASP filled this small and medium size business niche nicely. Visual Studio for the foreseeable future definitely is not the right development tool for this market, it is no where close to having the RAD capabilities, ease of use and the low cost of ownership of Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro.

Mark

WTF Moment: Cloud Computing

Has anyone heard of Microsoft's cloud computing initiative? And if so did it set off the same alarms that occurs when a 747 Air Jordian Jet Liner accidently flies into the White House Air Space? If it didn't let me break down for you what is happening here.

Microsoft first killed off Visual Basic which opened the door for them to kill off Visual FoxPro. This was not done because these were bad products (actually both are far better then Visual Studio/.BLOAT) nor because the communities were dying. This was totally a self serving Microsoft base decision .After completing this objective, Microsoft introduces cloud computing which basically means the great folks in Seattle want to house YOUR data for you on their servers.

Now you might be saying, Mark what is so bad about this. Well first off I predict the cost of SQL Server is going to SKY Rocket over the next 5 years to a point it will no longer be economically feasible for you to own the SQL Server software licenses and we will be forced into the cloud programming paradigm. If that does not work, Microsoft will simply stop offering SQL Server licenses exactly like they did with VB and VFP as that precedent has been set. Thereby Microsoft can implement it's subscription based pricing model to access "YOUR" data.

Then Microsoft is going to develop an airtight EULA for CLOUD SQL Server which basically will permit Microsoft to own YOUR data. The power this will give Microsoft is enormous and Microsoft will then have the leverage it needs to compete against Google. For example Microsoft will be able to access this data for targeted browser search engine advertising or mandate this data can only be accessed by Microsoft based browsers.

Microsoft did not become a Monopoly due to their innovation, their development group of programmers are not that good just look at VISTA not even Microsoft's marketing team could save that software disaster. Microsoft does excel however in business as that is what got them to where there are at today and don't be fooled this is strictly a business decision not a programming one.

Unless developer's completely rebuke this idea, which given the level of the cheerleading that is currently occurring, I doubt that will happen. The "CLOUD" that is coming is Microsoft's perfect storm which will unleash yet another Microsoft attempt at a monopoly and raise share holders divdiends in the process.

Till Next Time

.Mark

By The Way... A developer named Mr. Robert Wray has taken the time to post a blog entry about my blog. Which is kind of cool unforunately he took what I had to say out of context and obviously moderating comments. Therefore just to set the record straight below is my comment to Mr. Wray.

Hey Robert,

One question for you have you ever used Visual Basic or Visual FoxPro? My thought is you haven't otherwise you would have been aware VB and ASP can consume VFP middle tier DDL files therefore providing a far more robust N-TIER implementation with complete seperation between the UI, Middle Tier Code and either SQL Server or FoxPro Database files. We can also go the other way create a reusable activex control in VB and consume it in the VFP UI layer.

Something else really cool that VFP has and VS doesn't is a true data centric language with native data access which means it is doesn't suck at building middle tier components that follows N-TEIR standards which not even linq can do right. The only disadvantage is DLL hell syndrome which is more an operating system issue addressed completely with installshield.

The current production release of VS is nowhere near able to pull N-TIER off as cleanly as the above stated implementation maybe when/if MVC is ever released that might be close have to wait and see as currently MVC is in a state of disarray.

Moveover if my assumption is correct how do you know VS is better then VB or VFP? Curious if you read about it on GU'S blog and just following blind faith ?

With all due respect, I alway mention VB with VFP together when talking N-TIER design patterns. The rest of your post about my older is blog is equally inaccurate and probably will make little sense unless you thoroughly understand the C++ or VFP inheritance models therefore you were reduced to grasping at toolbox icons as being my issues therefore missing my entire point. Perhaps in the future do your research before flaming other developers and get your facts straight.

Best Regards,
Mark Gordon

Visual Studio Parody

I received an email yesterday that contained the following parody. Enjoy!

“Yes I Can” by Bill.I.M.Rich - Visual Studio Parody to the song - No We Can’t

Intro Guitar: A company inspires programmers
with just 3 words Visual Studio Net

Bill Gates: The work that we face in our migrations are great.
Adapting dot net, the terrible sacrifices it entails
The promise of a better application, is not always clear.
There are going to be more bugs, I’m sorry to tell you,
There's going to be more bugs

Developers: What?

Bill Gates: We are going to have a paradigm change
And my friends, it’s going to be tough and we are going to have a lot do.

Bill Gates: That ole beach boys song
Bomb VB, Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb VB

Bill Gates: (Laughing)

Developers: Bomb VB?

Bill Gates: I’m still convinced, VB means chaos
And if you think that things are bad now, without .net

Signing: Your f@#cked

Bill Gates: You ain’t seen nothing yet,
Bbbaaabbbyyy,
You aint seen nothing yet.

Reporter: Do you still think Visual Studio was a good idea
and worth the high cost to your customers.

Bill Gates: It was a good idea

Developers: No!

Reporter: Microsoft is talking about MVC, EDM
and maybe 50 different frameworks.

Bill Gates: Maybe 100

Developers: Say What

Bill Gates: Maybe 100

Developers: Frameworks?

Bill Gates: That’s fine with me

Microsoft Cheerleader: Visual Studio

Bill Gates: That’s fine with me

Microsoft Cheerleader: 100 Frameworks?

Bill Gates: I don’t think developers are concerned
If we have 100 frameworks or 1000 frameworks or 10,000 frameworks

10,000 frameworks
10,000 frameworks
10,000 frameworks

Visual Studio 2010
10,000 .NET Frameworks, 1 Billion Classes
Good Luck with that one.

Visual Studio 2008
Like RAD, But Bloated. ['But Bloated' Edit By .Mark seemed more fitting]

DOTBLOAT IS BACK!

I guess I upset someone at Microsoft or one of their cheerleaders as my blog was hacked and deleted. So fear not DOTBLOAT is back defending the rights of developers against the Microsoft Monopoly -- joining the protest of the abandonment of Visual Foxpro and Visual Basic Communities by the Microsoft rich and shameless - and lastly speaking up against the detestable act of outsourcing American jobs to India. The links to the Microsoft Execs are listed on this blog, let them know your frustrations with .NET and we wants our RAD development tools back!

In destroying my content they fed my passion.

.Mark

Some interesting blog posts about Microsoft

"Personnel decisions excluded, I'm not sure Microsoft has made a sound business decision related to VFP since they acquired it, unless the decision from day one was simply to kill the market. In that case, my hat is off to Microsoft. They can declare "mission accomplished" in the VFP market place in much the same way George Bush did in Iraq and with equal credibility. In reality, what's done is done and the reason - or lack thereof - behind the decision isn't all that important. I've signed the petition at MasFoxPro.com and think anyone with any interest in VFP should, but I don't expect anything to come of it. I'd love to be wrong. What frosts me the most about the whole thing is the absolute BS we've been fed about VFP not fitting into .NET. I've had several conversations with Microsoft folk about making VFP part of .NET and they would always come back with silly arguments about "how would you compile …" If there were any merit to those arguments then in reality what they were saying is that VFP is more capable than .NET and if so, what kind of a "business decision" is being made here? Maybe I'm just being too harsh and those guys at Microsoft just aren't that sharp after all. Maybe even with all of their vast resources the folks at Microsoft just can't figure this stuff out, yet a tiny little company like eTechnologia.net can.Ok, ranting aside, the truth is it would've been more difficult to make VFP a .NET language back in the 90's because .NET wasn't as capable then and Microsoft was hell bent against dynamic languages. But now? Microsoft is investing in creating versions of Python and Ruby for .NET and of course already has Jscript. If these dynamic languages can be developed for .NET, there's no reason VFP can't be ported to .NET. The new DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) for .NET should make this relatively easy. The marketplace has made Microsoft take notice of dynamic languages and as a result, a VFP.NET would take considerably less effort than it would've in the 90s.Now, ask yourself this, if Microsoft is making business decisions about VFP, don't you think there should be some logic applied across the board? Look at the VFP, Ruby and Python markets. Which market offers millions of lines of code, thousands of developers, hundreds of large customers and hundreds of vertical market applications? Now ask yourself, where's the business decision here?" - F1 Technologies Web Blog

"If you spend the money to upgrade to VB.NET, well, you just spent a lot of money to stand still. And companies don't like to spend a lot of money to stand still, so while you're spending the money, it probably makes sense to consider the alternatives that you can port to that won't put you at the mercy of a single vendor and won't be as likely to change arbitrarily in the future. So as soon as people with large code bases start hearing that they're going to have to work to port their apps from VB to VB.NET with WinForms, and then they start hearing that WinForms isn't really the future, the future is really this Avalon thing nobody has yet, they start wondering whether it isn't time to find another development platform." - Joel on Software