On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 04:25:56PM -0700, Steve Sheldon wrote: > > Well those are my thoughts, and I'm sure they don't help anyone because > what I talk of doesn't fit into anybody elses grand scheme on this list. > (Because I'm one of the few who doesn't have an anti-MS bias) So that > just further forks things. I don't know about others, but I've been developing on WIN32 for the past year, and I have to say that my anti-MS bias has gotten worse. The problem is that MS's developer tools are simply unreliable, and their support for "standards" is always tainted with incompatibilities. Even when you build specifically using the WIN32 platform and MS provided SDK's, whenever you try to push the limits of the software, things fail unpredictably. It's no wonder that Windows applications (not just MS's) have been so prone to failure. It's clear that MS's stuff is improving in quality. The .NET strategy, albeit stolen completely from Java, certainly helps the different MS development platforms to work together and makes it easier to webify applications. This is a very big thing for desktop apps and a good move by MS. The question now is adoption rate. It's at a snail's pace and will stay that way for a while. Writing a new .NET netrek client would certainly be straightforward. Netrek is not a complex piece of software. But the biggest improvement anyone can make to the client is its usability and user interface. .NET doesn't give you anything truly useful there. > I'll shut up now. Please keep me posted on how things go. I'll be glad to provide services and space on netrek.org if you need them. While I feel that MS does not provide superior technology, they do provide dominant technology. Gotta target the bigger audience... -- Dave Ahn | ahn at vec.wfubmc.edu | Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Try to live your life so that when you die, you will rejoice and the world will cry. -1/2 jj^2