Unfinished Thoughts About .NET -- Almost An Article, But Not Quite

.NET is way ahead:
http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6505

"Even worse--there are more real Web services applications in production built on .NET than on any alternative platform. The .NET platform is ahead in tooling, middleware services, integration services and process management services."

.NET has sunk like stone:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134497760_paul22.html

"Case in point: What happened to .NET? Microsoft's flagship strategy for "any time, anywhere computing from any device" has sunk like a stone. By now we were supposed to be seeing initial .NET applications, but the new rallying cry seems to be for Palladium, a security initiative that has met with the same skepticism and resistance from the developer community that .NET inspired."

I see two scenarios. (1) Microsoft is way ahead of competitors or (2) Microsoft is way ahead of competitors but the web services arena is vapor. In scenario one, Microsoft is the alpha wolf in an important new market; the stakes are high because this is the future. In scenario two, Microsoft is the leader but it just doesn't matter because web services are smoke and mirrors. In this scenario the market is suffering like a little puddle in the middle of a hot, dry parking lot.

I'd like to see some real .NET inspired services. I've been poking around looking for some examples but I've had no luck. I will assume that the web services tool people are building are behind corporate firewalls. But maybe that is a bad assumption. Maybe nothing is happening at all because developers are wandering around their cubicles trying to figure out what they should be coding. I did a few searches on Google for .NET applications but I came up with nothing interesting.

The .NET story isn't completely mysterious. For example, you can use the .NET envrionment to internationalize you ASP applications. http://www.devx.com/dotnet/articles/oc022102/oc022102-1.asp But that doesn't show me show .NET makes the web services magic work. It just sounds like a better environment in which to write code.

If you hunt around and squint your eyes, you can find some web services. However, isn't it interesting that only just recently people have begun to figure out how to even have one web service find another web service? For example, I was just reading an article over at IBM Developer Works about how to make this happen using Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-uddi4j2.html If that isn't confusing enough for you, consider that UDDI itself is generally defined as a web service. Oh boy! How much more confusion can we add to the mix?

Web services are for geeks still. Perhaps they will always be for geeks since web services is about internet plumbing. Things like XML, UDDI, .NET, J2EE, and so forth make 99% of people glaze. Indeed, are you sleeping as you read this? The point is that web services, from Microsoft or any other party, are not here yet. The whole concept isn't even understood by developers and other geeks. The articles will keep rolling for a while since there isn't much else to talk about in the software world and it will be fueled for time being with Microsoft and IBM marketing dollars.

I'm wondering when the hype about the hype will stop. I don't really give a damn about what companies are doing to promote web serices. I don't care about their plans to dominate this space. Who cares about what development language is used? Instead, I am waiting to see some real benefits. I want to experience this great thing they call web serices.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 26, 2002 10:42 PM

 

>>I get started and then I stop before I am done<<

I think that about explains my entire life... :)

Posted by: TimW on August 27, 2002 01:39 AM

 

I find if I can't polish off a project within a couple of days then it'll take some real effort and organisation to get completed. Hence me using my weblog as a dumping ground for all sorts of miscellaneous stuff, it lets me get trivial ideas out there quickly before I get bored with them.

(as for .NET, well Microsoft doesn't really care if Web services don't take off for a while. Yes, it damaged .NET by getting it mixed up with Hailstorm and all sorts of confused marketing messages, but the developers out there who have been using plain ASP are now either moving to or looking at .NET. As long as developers make the move MS know they'll achieve a certain level of success)

Posted by: Matt Round on August 27, 2002 02:36 AM

 

Writing is a underestimated craft. It is difficult to write good articles just like it is difficult to design a good product. When it is done well, people wonder how it could have been otherwise. When it is done poorly, everyone notices.

Don't feel bad about having unfinished work.

Posted by: Nevermind on August 28, 2002 08:18 AM

 

I find that I hardly ever set out to write an article. My articles tend to grow from short comments - like this one would, if I let it.

Here's how I approach it: I always plan to write a 100 word article. That way I always finish (usually they become links in my newsletter). The 100 word article has now become my preferred way to communicate. I make one point - just as most articles do - but without the extra 500 - 2000 words.

If the article gets longer, then I promote it from a 'link' to an 'article' and post it in my articles base. And voila! I'm a writer.

Posted by: Stephen Downes on August 29, 2002 08:48 AM