Enterprise development is not new. In fact, many of the core values that drive enterprise architecture have been around for quite a few years. The problem is, if you ’ re a Microsoft programmer, you probably haven ’ t encountered any of them. Most enterprise patterns come from the great wide open world of common developer contribution known by most of us as open source . As a result, most enterprise systems have been built with platform - independent technologies such as Java or even C++. That ’ s not to say that
Microsoft technologies have never been used to build big systems for large organizations. Remember, enterprise architecture does not necessarily mean “ made for big companies. ” We simply point out that the evolution of the patterns and methodologies driving the core values have depended on contributions from the developer community. Until recently Microsoft technologies were anything but open source. Since the open source community was the fecund environment from which modern enterprise concepts emerged, Microsoft software has played a relatively minor role in the evolution of enterprise architecture.

In the Microsoft world, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the ability to create applications quickly. Tools that provide quick automation and almost instant results can be found all over the Windows world. These tools generally fall within a category of software development known as rapid application development, or RAD. RAD - style programming isn ’ t necessarily meant to deliver production – worthy code. Rather, its primary goal is to enable developers and analysts to emulate the core behaviors of a system quickly, intentionally ignoring patterns and process for a quick bang factor. Unfortunately, a good deal of RAD development is downright counter to the core values of enterprise development.

RAD culture has worked its way strongly into the large developer base of Microsoft programmers. At the heart of this pervasive movement lies the simple, easy - to - use language Visual Basic. First given the moniker “ Project Thunder ” and released as VB 1.0 in mid - 1991, VB has since become the most popular programming language among Windows developers and one of the most widely used programming languages in the world. Its verbose, non - C - style syntax is easy for analysts and the less technically inclined to follow. The language itself has undergone a number of dramatic changes and enhancements over the years. However, until the language itself was retooled for the managed world and named VB.NET, its primary focus was to provide RAD tools for building powerful, production applications. At the height of its popularity, VB was most widely employed in one of two forms: Visual Basic 6.0, or Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). VB6 was its own development suite. It included tools for quickly creating object - structured applications using visual designers and wizard - like feature builders. VBA was, and still remains, the language of macros and automation within Microsoft Office applications. Between these two suites, new generations of coders were empowered. Forgoing a great deal of process and design, applications were churned out at alarming rates, with little planning and even less testing. Simple Word documents and Excel spreadsheets were fashioned with VB forms that provided a more flexible user experience than would otherwise have been achievable. Websites that once required complex Internet Server API (ISAPI) filters and direct Internet Information Server (IIS) extensions could now use VB6 ActiveX components, giving a website access to the entire Component Object Model (COM) library with very little development overhead. As usage increased, so did the power of VB. In time, Visual Basic eclipsed C++ as the Microsoft language of choice, yielding just about as much power as a complicated C module but without all of the messy planning beforehand.

Unfortunately, VB development led to some staggeringly bad applications. Once the emphasis was placed on delivery and away from design and process, a large number of companies found themselves stuck with unreliable, inflexible systems. They might have been delivered quickly, but the cost of maintenance over time became staggering. Note that we are not passing blanket judgment on the VB developer community. On the contrary, we too, found ourselves building systems in VB6 for quite a few years. We simply mean to demonstrate how this formidable trend in Microsoft development is one of the big reasons why enterprise design patterns still elude the common Microsoft programmer. The RAD culture that grew out of Visual Basic development polarized the pattern - minded from the results oriented, ultimately blocking the mainstream Windows developers from participating in the enterprise effort.

Source of Information : Wrox Professional Enterprise dot NET

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