A
Alan Silver
Hello,
SHORT VERSION OF THE QUESTION...
What is your experience of the new ASP.NET datasource controls? Are they
as good as they look, or are they another useless gimmick for doing
flashy management demos?
LONG VERSION OF THE QUESTION...
When I started programming with Visual Basic 6, there were some (new I
think) features that were supposed to be the bee's knees in saving the
programmer time. These included data bound controls and the data
environment (DE). When you went through the demos, you came away very
impressed at how easy it was to produce db-driven applications. For
data-bound controls, you just added an ADODC control to the form, then
bound the other controls to that. With the DE, you used a graphical tool
in the IDE to connect to the db, then drag the required fields onto the
form. Wonderful stuff.
This state of bliss lasted as long as you were just playing. When you
started your first real application, you discovered that they weren't
quite as good as you thought. There were various quirks and oddities
that meant you had to write extra code to avoid being trapped by the
system. After a while, you realised that you were fighting the
environment to persuade it to do what you wanted. You began to wonder if
it was worth it. The amount of code required to do anything useful
exceeded the amount you would have written had you done the whole thing
by hand.
In desperation, you posted a message to Usenet (or did a search if you
were a Good Netizen) and you discovered that these toys were for show
only. Real Programmers didn't use them. In fact, Real Programmers said
fairly rude things about them!! So, after investing ages building your
new app around them, you had to scrap them and write it all from
scratch.
My first thought when I saw the new ASP.NET data controls was that they
were a brilliant time-saver. My (immediate) second thought was that they
could easily be the same scenario all over again.
So, anyone any comments? Are they really as good as they look, or has MS
done the same trick again? I don't want to waste time with them if they
are going to be a problem, but it will be worth it if they are as useful
in real life as they appear to be from the simple examples shown in the
books and articles.
Comments please.
SHORT VERSION OF THE QUESTION...
What is your experience of the new ASP.NET datasource controls? Are they
as good as they look, or are they another useless gimmick for doing
flashy management demos?
LONG VERSION OF THE QUESTION...
When I started programming with Visual Basic 6, there were some (new I
think) features that were supposed to be the bee's knees in saving the
programmer time. These included data bound controls and the data
environment (DE). When you went through the demos, you came away very
impressed at how easy it was to produce db-driven applications. For
data-bound controls, you just added an ADODC control to the form, then
bound the other controls to that. With the DE, you used a graphical tool
in the IDE to connect to the db, then drag the required fields onto the
form. Wonderful stuff.
This state of bliss lasted as long as you were just playing. When you
started your first real application, you discovered that they weren't
quite as good as you thought. There were various quirks and oddities
that meant you had to write extra code to avoid being trapped by the
system. After a while, you realised that you were fighting the
environment to persuade it to do what you wanted. You began to wonder if
it was worth it. The amount of code required to do anything useful
exceeded the amount you would have written had you done the whole thing
by hand.
In desperation, you posted a message to Usenet (or did a search if you
were a Good Netizen) and you discovered that these toys were for show
only. Real Programmers didn't use them. In fact, Real Programmers said
fairly rude things about them!! So, after investing ages building your
new app around them, you had to scrap them and write it all from
scratch.
My first thought when I saw the new ASP.NET data controls was that they
were a brilliant time-saver. My (immediate) second thought was that they
could easily be the same scenario all over again.
So, anyone any comments? Are they really as good as they look, or has MS
done the same trick again? I don't want to waste time with them if they
are going to be a problem, but it will be worth it if they are as useful
in real life as they appear to be from the simple examples shown in the
books and articles.
Comments please.