What can asp.net *WebForms* developers expect in future?

Question

Although it is said that Webforms and MVC are treated equal I am in doubt. Most new stuff seems to be happening around MVC.

It's not about technical aspects, more a personal question.

So what to do?

• Keep with Webforms and set focus on Sharepoint (still Webforms)?
• Keep with Webforms and simply trust Microsoft and the future of Webforms?
• Go back and start again with MVC (as a Beginner, 49 years old)?
• Try something completely new (Silverlight / LightSwitch)?

Any Ideas?

Answer 1

The reason there appears to be more movement on ASP.NET MVC is because ASP.NET Web Forms have been around much longer, so there is less to add. Microsoft do seem genuinely committed to providing both options to developers and with the new Routing rules now being available to Web Forms websites, you can get stuck into the restful URIs that MVC developers have been enjoying.

Having said this, learning ASP.NET MVC or Silverlight wouldn't be a bad thing. Choosing between these is really more to do with what you are working on. Silverlight and MVC are aimed at different applications entirely, so if you like writing "applications and interfaces" you might prefer Silverlight, if you are writing quality web pages, you'll prefer MVC.

Although you are 49, it really shouldn't take too long to master either of these. To be entirely up front, MVC will probably be less of a learning curve than Silverlight, but you could still be a ninja in either of these at 50 years old!!!

Answer 2

That's not going back. That's going further.

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Btw, have You seen presentation

"The Next Big Thing Or Cool-Kid Koolaid? Slicing Through The Rhetoric of MVC vs. WebForms"

by Rob Conery?

Answer 3

Scott Guthrie wrote an interesting article about webforms vs mvc: About Technical Debates (and ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC debates in particular).

I myself am busy with webforms professionally since 2002 and also took notice of MVC when it came out. My current assignment as a consultant is an MVC2 project. I read a couple of books, took some tutorials (http://www.asp.net/mvc) and made a couple of presentations about it for user groups.

Personally I saw that MVC seems to get more attention than standard webforms. Mainly due to several reasons:

• it's a new team focussing on new technology and the way they develop is more agile
• webforms always were released with a new version of the .NET framework/Visual Studio. MVC has a more out of band approach and they don't (have to) stick to new releases of either the framework or the IDE.
• webforms is getting quite mature. Face it, it's already a way cool environment to work in. Lots of default controls, lots of third party controls, added Ajax support and the toolkit.

I've written several small, average and quite big applications with webforms and I'm glad they all worked out for my clients.

Go back and start again with MVC (as a Beginner, 49 years old)?

I would like to answer with a quote: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Mahatma Ghandi.

MVC is different from webforms that's true but you also are using the same underlying platform. Session state, querystring, membership, Cache, ... all that's still there. What you're missing out most is the usage of server controls and a new way of requesting your "pages".

I might not be able to convince you to take a look over the fence and to try out some of the simple tutorials over here but I sure hope you will at least take a look at them. Trying to learn at least the concepts will only benefit your career. At least try to read the 6 part tutorial of musicstore or the free eBook from Nerddinner.