Blogging Roller

SharpDevelop, an open source (GPL) IDE for C# and VB.Net projects, seems like an inexpensive and fun way to get started with some .Net education. All you need is the .Net SDK and you are off and running, right?

Yep, all you have to do is to download the .Net SDK and start hacking away. But wait, the .NetFramework SDK is a 137,363,456 byte download. And that is not all, if you want to redistribute your .Net apps you'll also need to download the .Net Framework Redistributable, another 21,827,584 bytes. And you thought the JDK was bloated!

Andy published a review of the Eclipse IDE on the Triangle JUG's Wiki. I agree with just about everything he says. Like Andy, "I'm not really a 'real' IDE user. I drop into vi and start clacking away like it was second nature at the first sign of the IDE getting in my way. And I use ant to build EVERYTHING." With Netbeans, I was always dropping back into vi. With Eclipse, I never feel that need.

In other Andy news, Andy mentioned today on his Hacking Log the possibility of a joint venture with the Triangle Dot-Net Users Group and the Triangle Java Users Group: a Dot-Net vs. J2EE shootout. Now, that sounds like a fun meeting.

Don't let it stop.

Matt and Greg noticed that I've been futzing around with my templates. Yes, it is fun and yes I fixed my background - thanks Matt. I'm trying to understand CSS a little better. I'm still experimenting so expect more changes.

It has been a week now since the TSS published The Petstore Revisited, but I am just now getting around to reviewing the story.  

On Monday Oct. 28, 2002, The Server Side published (TSS) The Petstore Revisited.  This benchmark report compared Sun's example J2EE Petstore application with some performance revisions added by TSS to a Microsoft written dot-Net clone of the Petstore.  Respected open source Java guru Rickard Oberg quickly reviewed the report, found many flaws, and published a rebuttal the very next day. Rickard updated his rebuttal with more information and links to other's views throughout the week (but he missed Rafe's comments). On Wednesday he was Slashdotted.  

As the week progressed, the outcry continued, and the full story was revealed:

• the benchmark report was seriously flawed in many ways,
• the J2EE Petstore performance revisions done by TSS were inept at best,
• Microsoft paid TSS to do the benchmark,
• TSS is essentially a Microsoft business partner,
  
• and TSS worked with Microsoft to coordinate the dot-Net victory media spin.

If you take the time to read Rickard's review and the comments that he links to, it is clear that dot-Net did not defeat J2EE, but Microsoft certainly did lay waste to The Server Side's reputation.  The TSS benchmarks taught us nothing about the relative merits of dot-Net and J2EE, instead we learned about incompetence and betrayal.

If you are concerned about the relative performance of dot-Net and J2EE, read the Pet Shop Boys write-up at Larry O'Brien's Thinking In Dot Net weblog:

Looks like FreeRoller is still up. How about that!