Commercial 3rd party frameworks

[JimWWhite]

I'm learning VB.Net and transitioning my apps from Visual FoxPro to VB.Net. In VFP many companies and programmers use third party commercial frameworks that provide a lot of different utilities, n-tier development, classes, etc. to build their apps with. These are not 'code generators'. I'm aware of two commercial third party frameworks like StrataFrame and MereMortals that are similar products to the ones I've been using in VFP. I would be very appreciative if some of you .Net developers would give me the names of the frameworks you are using today with VB.Net and if possible why you'd recommend them. I'm really interested in the top five or so that are in common use out there in the business world today, i.e. those that are the standard for corporate use.

Many Thanks!
Jim

 

[mchean]

Jim: I'm in exactly the same situation that you are, and I'm suprised that no one has responded to you. Have you made any progress on your own in this regard? I've been looking at DevExpress XPO, but its not really a business framework as much as it is strictly an ORM layer, which is disappointing because its a nice product as far as it goes. I've spoken with people who've used Strataframe, Deklarit and have really liked those products.

Mike

 

[JimWWhite]

Thanks for responding, Mike. We've been testing MereMortals here and so far it looks if we go with a third-party framework it will probably be MM. StrataFrame is a great product but a little too rigid for our use. If you're coming from VFP like we are then you'll appreciate MM because the Developer, Kevin McNeish, came from VFP. His training courses which he conducts can be tailored to companies like ours making such a move.

And to top things off, the powers-to-be here have decided that we will be going to C# instead of VB.Net. I can't say I'm disappointed because C# is closer to VFP in some things like classes and inheritence.

 

[mchean]

Thanks Jim:
I'm downloading MM.Net right now. I worked with an early version of this sometime ago, in both VFP and an alph in .Net. So, I haven't looked at it in awhile. Could you give me some samples of where you found Strataframe to be too rigid?

Thanks
Mike

 

[JimWWhite]

StrataFrame

Nothing major. We felt that we had to program around foundation/framework things such as a screen's look and feel to get things the way we wanted them. Also it seemed as if SF was more of a RAD tool instead of a life-cycle development tool like MM. And most importantly, MM seemed to be more driven by business rules which is what we felt we needed.