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Toolbar Controls Reinforce VS.NET's RAD Nature
VSLive! Orlando, September 19, 2002 I was struck by a couple thoughts as I kneaded my way through the packed aisles of the VSLive! Orlando exhibit hall during the past couple days. First, it was hard not to notice the numerous demonstrations and announcements of Internet and Web-service related products. Of course, this was no surprise because Visual Studio .NET brings a lot of new functionality and features to bear on creating Web-related applications, whether a developer wants to create Web-enabled applications or the much-ballyhooed Web Services applications. In a similar vein, many vendors I spoke to at the show mentioned they would be adding Compact Framework-enabled components to their respective arsenals. This wasn't a surprise, either, given Microsoft's recent announcements that the next version of Visual Studio .NET will ship with the Compact Framework, enabling developers to create applications for PocketPC-based devices using the same basic paradigm that they use when creating Web or desktop applications with version 1 of VS.NET. Second, the Web-related capabilities of VS.NET get the bulk of the attention, but the abundance of GUI-style components and suites demonstrated at the show reminded me that there is much in VS.NET for developers who focus primarily on creating desktop and/or client/server applications. This aspect of VS.NET probably doesn't get the attention it deserves, and I suspect this lack of attention leaves many developers wondering what's in .NET apart from the ability to create Web-enabled or Web Services applications. For example, how often have you heard the phrase that ".NET is all about Web services"? What this phrase doesn't acknowledge is that VS.NET lets you create many types of applications, including traditional Windows desktop applications—the bread-and-butter of applications for so many VB developers during the course of the last decade. One type of GUI control stood out above the others for me as I watched the demos and talked to vendors at the show: the lowly toolbar control. I saw at least three different toolbar controls demonstrated at the show, including offerings from Infragistics (UltraWinToolbars), ComponentOne (ComponentOne Menus and Toolbars for .NET), and Innovasys (DockStudioXP). That's on top of the DotNetBar control available from DevComponents.com and the Sax.net SmartUI control from Sax.net—companies not at the show. I'm sure there are many more toolbars, too—my apologies if I've neglected to mention your particular favorite. As you might expect, each of these offerings varies in functionality, overall size and complexity, and price. But they all share the same fundamental concept of making it easier for developers to add the latest Windows/Office/VS.NET-style toolbars to their apps. It might be hard to choose from so many options, but it's nice to have the choice. The abundance of such controls reinforces the fact that VS.NET is a powerful platform for creating Windows desktop apps. You don't have to build everything from scratch; indeed, you would be wasting your employer's time and money if you did so. VS.NET, like VB before it, was constructed with extensibility in mind. You'll get the most out of the tool by leveraging that fact. About the Author |