Make a case for .NET 2.0

posted Tuesday, June 21, 2005 5:31 PM

So you’re about to start on the development of a pretty significant sized Smart Client application, do you use .NET 2.0 or stick with .NET 1.1?  What arguments do you use to convince you’re boss that going with .NET 2.0 is the way to go?  What drawbacks do you see with going with 2.0?

The release cycle for the initial version is likely 9–12 months, and the anticipated clients tend to be on the conservative side when it comes to rolling out new technology.

What do you do?

Update: Here are some of the new features Microsoft is touting, and some more on windowsforms.net.

2 Comments

# re: Make a case for .NET 2.0

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 12:17 AM by Dave Burke    
Our friend Stefano Demiliani mentioned this issue a couple of months ago. He may have more insight now than I can provide.

http://demiliani.com/blog/archive/2005/04/26/2406.aspx

You're new to winforms, right? I ask because you don't have experience in winforms 1.1. If you did, then went to 2.0, you would see a substantial productivity increase in comparing the two.

Secondly, the richness of usercontrols is greater in 2.0 (though 3rd party controls still are the richest.)

Thirdly, many aspects of the framework compel development for the future, like generics, iterators, etc.

Finally, and the grand slam, is Click-Once deployment and update. In Channel 9 interviews and elsewhere I've heard people in the know state that Click-Once is the single greatest improvement in .NET 2.0, period. If you compare the App Updater Block and the laborious maintenance aspects of 1.1 (check out IssueVision), its a no-brainer.

Plus, a 9-12 month release cycle??? You're golden!


# re: Make a case for .NET 2.0

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 9:02 AM by Steve    
Ah, ClickOnce is another great reason which I had forgotten about. I am relatively new to winforms, I've dabbled in it for various things but never for a "real" development project. I'll check out Stefano's post to see what other ideas he presents. Thanks for the thoughts!

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