Why The Changes?

• The Javascript ecosystem is the elephant in the room.
• How does ASP.NET MVC compare?

Javascript Frameworks

• Pros:
  • Clientside logic.
  • Don't need to hit the server to do stuff.
  • Works in all modern browsers, so works on all modern platforms.
• Cons
  • Clientside logic.
  • Browser Javascript VMs (by design) provide a limited programming platform.

ASP.NET MVC

• Pros
  • Serverside.
  • Has a stronger, more mature programming platform to work with.
  • Easier to secure.
• Cons
  • Serverside.
  • Harder to make responsive applications
  • Not cross-platform. At all.
  • Built on paradigms that the web is evolving past

Wait, What About WebAPI?

• WebAPI continues to be the best thing about ASP.NET.
  • Has matured into a good, solid, well-designed RESTful API framework.
  • Only knock against it in the server world is the Windows-only limitation.

Microsoft's Problem

• The world outside of Microsoft-land is very different.

  • Many (most) web developers don't use Windows-only frameworks.
• MS was actively hostile to open-source and cross-platform
  • IE made web developer's lives miserable for over a decade.
• Webdev is suddenly very important.
  • Microsoft needs web developers more than web developers need Microsoft.

But Then

• A lot of things happened at once.
  • Nadella became CEO.
  • OWIN/Katana were released (hosting abstraction).
  • Mono/Xamarin started taking off (multiplatform .Net)
  • A new generation of MS guys like David Fowler (SignalR creator and now ASP.NET 5 architect) started doing cool stuff.
  • Massive chunks of .NET and ASP.NET were open-sourced, and development started to move onto Github.

The New Microsoft

• For reals this time.
• Remember "Embrace, Extend, Exterminate"?
• They gave up on the Exterminate part because it wasn't working.

One Requires The Other

• So the clear push from Microsoft is to take pages from open-source projects and bring
  • Cross-platform support
  • Modularity
  • Integration with established tooling

..to the entire development platform

"You have no credibility if you try to go cross-platform and you're not open-source. If you want to go cross plat you need to go open source."

The 3 Pillars Must Change

• IIS optional
• Windows optional
• Visual Studio optional
  • Not possible without reworking core aspects of Microsoft's development platform.
    • .Net Framework (The Framework)
    • ASP.NET (The Platform)
    • Visual Studio (The Tooling)

.Net

(Aka The Fork)

And Then There Were Three

• There are currently 3 (!) officially supported .Net runtimes:
  • .Net Core 5 (The new, completely open-source, completely multiplatform one)
  • .Net 4.6 (The monolithic, Windows-only one you know and love)
  • Mono (The weird one Miguel de Icaza tried to get Linux people to use even before Microsoft cared about multiplatform)

.Net Core 5

• Essentially a fork.
• Why a fork?
  • Microsoft has published a lot of the existing .Net framework code already.
  • But there are (apparently) legal/business reasons they can't/won't open source it.
  • .Net 4.6 will "never be on Github"
  • Chunks of it of it just aren't portable to non-Windows platforms (Forms, etc) 

.Net Core 5

• So we have what amounts to a new framework.
  • Much more modular, and "optimized for the cloud".
  • Open-sourced from day 1, developed out in the open on Github.
    • https://github.com/Microsoft/dotnet
  • Multiplatform from day 1.
  • Has Roslyn-enabled features not supported by the existing framework.
• Mandatory system-level runtime installs are gone, even on Windows.

.Net Core 5

• You get all the features of the new Roslyn runtime with Core 5.
  • On-the-fly in-memory compilation.
  • Which if you're a developer means you won't see a discrete compile step anymore. 
• I am sad to report that WebForms will never be supported with Core 5.
  • I am actually not sad to report that.

.Net 4.6

• 4.x is the last of the monolithic system-level .Net releases.
  • 4.6 will get updates.
  • There are Core 5 features that will never come to 4.6.
• .Net 4.x is the last version of .Net that will work the way you're used to.

Mono

• 3rd party Xamarin .Net implementation.
  • Mono is a Microsoft-supported host for ASP.Net 5 apps just like Core 5 and .Net 4.6.
  • Core 5 is a bit unstable now, Mono is still the best option for Linux or OS X.
  • I also suspect MS will drop Mono when Core 5 comes fully online.
  • Currently it's 100% supported, and all the Core 5 unit tests are required to pass on Mono.

ASP.Net 5+

(Aka MVC 6)

ASP.Net

• With .Net Core 5, you no longer need a system-level pre-installed .Net runtime.
• Basically you get a version of .Net deployed with your app, stripped of all APIs your app doesn't use.
• OWIN middleware is now used for everything
  • This allows you to self-host, host outside of IIS, or host inside IIS

ASP.Net

• On ALL platforms
  • You use Nuget to install dependencies.
  • You use a command line tool to build the app.
  • You use a command line tool to run/host the app.

ASP.Net

• dnvm - Dot Net Version Manager - download, update and change the runtime.
• ​dnu - Dot Net Development Utility - Nuget package manager.
• dnx - Dot Net Execution Environment - Basically like running node.exe for node apps.
• Even Visual Studio on Windows will just invoke these tools for those operations.

ASP.Net

• Web.config is no longer required for hosting config.
  • But you can still use it if you want
  • You can also use JSON, INI files, or just environment variables.
• Config reader middleware will transparently handle reading config options from any of those.

ASP.Net

• Like Core 5, all ASP.Net development is happening out in the open on Github.
• https://github.com/aspnet/home
• The weekly standup are public, and hosted via Google Hangouts.

Visual Studio

(Aka The Moneymaker)

Tooling

• Multiplatform runtime and hosting doesn't get you anywhere if your tooling is platform-bound.
  • Most non-MS devs do not use MS tooling and are not GUI-only users
• Making Visual Studio multiplatform would be an insane effort.
  • Also project configs are tightly coupled with Visual Studio
  • Non-MS devs would rather continue to use or at least interoperate with proven tooling.

Tooling

• Microsoft is reworking the project file format.
  • Unsurprisingly, the new project files look exactly like they do in the Javascript/nodeJS world.
• .csproj's are no more
• Not MSBuild based.
  • A JSON file that lists stuff like dependencies and build targets.
  • No more huge lists of referenced files.
  • Folder-based includes, wildcard excludes.
  • Much trimmer and less fragile format.

Tooling

• You can manage and build/host with command line tools.
• Project files are no longer opaque wads of XML.
• Built-in support for 3rd-party task runners.
• All of this means you can use any text editor you want to develop ASP.Net apps.

Tooling

• But of course Microsoft wants a piece of this action.
  • Visual Studio Code
    • https://code.visualstudio.com
  • VS Code is basically Microsoft's response to the popular crop of visually clean, powerful multiplatform text editors like Sublime Text, Atom, etc.
  • VS Code is multiplatform.
  • It's either VS Lite or a heavy text editor, depending on your viewpoint.

Tooling

• VS Code
  • Intellisense
  • All the new .Net command line operations
    • Nuget
    • Run
    • Debug
  • Gulp task runner
  • Code lens
  • Native Git support

Tooling

• Debugging
  • Right now, there is no good C# debugging story outside of using the real Visual Studio.
  • This may change eventually.

Summary

Embrace, Extend, Monetize

• The .Net framework is fundamentally changing.
• ASP.Net is fundamentally changing.
• The tooling story is fundamentally changing.

Embrace, Extend, Monetize

• All of this is undeniably a response to the success of the non-Microsoft webdev ecosystem.
• Microsoft needs to win hearts and minds so it can sell them software licenses and Azure.
• All of this makes .Net development better.