Roy totally agree with you. In a sense, the Mozilla
example is a good one. Look at the number of versions
they have, because the project is not manage by some
authority.
I like the Application blocks, because as you mention
it, it give me a good professional and reliable solution
to some basic tasks. I can't deal anymore without the
DAB, and thanks for the info I was not aware of a
version 3.
I think the majority of people who look at the app
blocks just download them and use them as a reference
for the 'proper' way to do something. This being true,
the value is seriously damaged if it is the work of the
community.
Oh yeah, and most people in the MS dev community
actually want to make money for our work - so this idea
that Redmond has that the 'community' will become some
OSS hybrid is just flat wrong.
Roy, from what I've seen and heard, your assumptions as
stated above simply aren't correct. I have seen tons of
complaints that MS hasn't followed it's own best
practices in their app blocks, that they don't maintain
them, they don't add features that are required for them
to become really useful, etc, etc, etc. I think every
reason you state for wanting MS to keep control (except
for the brand recognition and assumed accountability)
are things that I have seen posted elsewhere that are
lacking in the blocks.
Sorry do post again already, but note that the post
immediately under this post on the weblogs.asp.net main
feed is an example of what I am saying. The block in
question there has bugs and the poster has fixed them
but since it is not a community project, he is the only
person who has that corrected working version and the
rest of us will have to fix the bugs ourselves.
Shannon: If MS is slacking on the blocks, would a
community effort do any better? MS has some serious
thinking to do in this regard, but in the end, if *they*
are not fully accountable for the application blocks,
those community developed blocks will be nothing but
well known code snippets.
If MS can't dedicate people to the blocks it itself has
been creating, that is a problem in itself. It does not
mean that they need to transfer over to the community.It
just means that MS needs to pick up the slack in this
regard and make our lives a little easier. Just like the
application blocks are supposed to do.
1. Do you think that the official MS version of the DAL
block has progressed farther and/or better than the GDN
version?
2. Do you think MS will be releasing more than 1 version
of a block per framework release?
3. Do you think MS will even be releasing service packs,
updates or hotfixes at all for the blocks?
If you answered "yes" to any of the
above questions, then you have a point. Otherwise it is
all just wishful thinking. If simply saying
"Microsoft really should do ______"
had any bearing on reality, the world would be a much
different place, wouldn't it?