Microsoft folks are very enthusiastic ! We love to dig in to
new technology and show off the cool work that we do and this
has been VERY true of ASP.NET MVC.
Unfortunately, sometimes our zeal get's misinterpreted.
I'm getting lots of questions about the future of ASP.NET
development as it pertains to MVC and WebForms - and folks are
concerned and worried.
Today I got an email from a former Microsoftie asking these
common questions so I thought I would answer them here.
1.) Will ASP.NET MVC will be the main web platform for
ASP.NET?
NO !
MVC is an option. It will NOT replace WebForms. WebForms will
continue to evolve and be the PRIMARY UI developers mechanism
for ASP.NET. MVC will be great for a subset of ASP.NET
applications and developers.The p[oint is, ASP.NET developers
will have a great available CHOICE.
Personally - I will continue to use WebForms and will likely
not use MVC much if at all.
2.) Will WebForms continue to be expanded/supported ?
YES! YES! YES !
In fact, this fall I'll be focusing on publishing videos and
such on NEW WebForms Features and usage scenarios.
3.) Which JavaScript
framework is recommended to be used with ASP.NET MVC (ASP.NET
AJAX, jQuery, etc.)?
Microsoft supports our own AJAX
Client Libraries, but I regularly use jQuery and other
independent libraries. The Microsoft libraries are integration
friendly with any JavaScript
library that uses some king of Name-Spacing mechanism to avoid
naming collisions.
4.) How well ASP.NET AJAX
will be supported with ASP.NET MVC?
Who knows? ASP.NET AJAX
is built around the page postback model so the server side
stuff is decidedly WebForms but the client stuff is happy
anywhere.
Check outthis post by Nikhil where he adds some basic AJAX
stuff to an MVC application.
http://www.nikhilk.net/Ajax-MVC.aspx
5.) Will ASP.NET AJAX
and Ajax Control Toolkit will be expanded/supported?
YES !
Simply - YES !
LONG LIVE WEB FORMS !