What application framework I should use?

Question

Folks, It's a nice scope for me to architect a fairly big portal application. I am aiming to write this application to stay in business for next 5 years at least. For this application I am considering

1. SilverLight
2. ASP.net MVC
3. Complete (and/or Mixing with ASP.net) JAVA script base framework (jQuery, ExtJS etc).

I know the technical pros and cons of all these technologies more or less. But I really wanted to hear some different opinions/suggestions from other experts.

For example, in the upcoming 5 years I want the product stay onto the top technical insight and flexible too.

Guys any comments, recommendations, suggestions please ?

Answer 1

Asp.net MVC is a safer bet. Should the need arrive, you can migrate to a similar framework with a lot less pain.

You can always use silverlight in v. specific places of the user experience if you need anything advanced. Note you could even use flash for v. specific things instead of silverlight if that fits the bill. Not saying one if better than the other (or that you should use flash over silverlight), just that if you keep them to specific pieces of the app you are not so tied to them.

As for jquery, if you are going to add any javascript to the site Do use it. Its just that good. I prefer/tend to use a progressive js approach, but nowadays it isn't much of an issue.