Feed on
Posts
Comments
»

.NET 3.0 – What is it again?

Jan 1st, 2007 by

By now you’ve probably heard of Microsoft’s .NET 3.0 release.  Many developers feel that .NET 3.0  should have been called .NET 2.5, as it contains no changes to the core .NET 2.0 libraries. Instead it is a enhanced/extended version of the 2.0 framework.  You can run a .NET 2.0 application on a computer with either 2.0 or 3.0 installed without any troubles.  What .NET 3.0 does contain however is several huge new libraries of code for the next generation of Windows development. 

  • Window Presentation Foundation (WPF)
  • Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
  • Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
  • Windows Cardspace  (WCS)

Wondering why Windows Workflow Foundation doesn’t use the acronym (WWF)?  The rumor mill claims that it’s to avoid legal issues with the World Wrestling Federation.

[Edit] Jason Mauer contends that the conflict was due to fear of the World Wildlife Fund.  See the comments.

Each of these four Foundations takes a huge investment of time for developers to learn and absorb.  The payoff?  Better Windows based applications of course.  Some of you may say “So what.  Windows is dead.”  It is certainly true that web technologies are making giant strides forward.  AJAX, ATLAS, Ruby on Rails and others technologies are enabling really cool websites to blossom.  You can trumpet the benefits of Linux distros and yell all you want about the glamour of Mac computers.  But you know what?   Corporate America still loves their Windows application.  If you need to create Windows application you will want to learn .NET 3.0.

So I’ll make the assumption that some of us need to invest time and energy into learning .NET 3.0.   My favorite of the four technologies is WPF.   That’s where I’m concentrating my learning time. 

That’s why I started this blog and the wpfwonderland.com companion site.  Let’s start learning about WPF!

Walt

Posted in .NET 3.0, WPF

One Response to “.NET 3.0 – What is it again?”

  1. Jason Mauer says:
    January 5, 2007 at 1:50 pm

    WF is not WWF not because of the wrestlers, but because of the pandas… the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org). They actually won a legal battle against the wrestling organization formerly known as WWF (now WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment) because the wrestlers had published their website at http://www.wwf.com despite an existing agreement with the panda WWF that they wouldn’t promote their trademark online. It’s all because of the pandas!!!