jQuery + Perl CGI to vb.net transition

Question

I've been developing oracle database-heavy "web applications" forever by building my html by hand, adding some jquery to handle ajax requests (html inserts for forms processing etc), and always did my server side stuff in perl cgi. I really love how easy it is to read some form input, execute some select statements through dbi, and generate HTML to be inserted by the jquery request. That's a web application to me.

However, my new boss builds everything in visual studio 2010, vb.net for web application development. That's how much I can describe it. So, for work reasons, I now need to start developing in vb.net so it can be collectively maintained, and I'm just seeking advice on where to start learning/how to approach this.

I'm thinking I need to learn how to write cgi applications in vb.net , and continue with client-side scripting (jQuery) handled by server-side CGI processing by combiled vb.net exe's, maybe.

We're moving heavily to mobile applications and really need to reduce client-side processing load. Is there any advantage to my boss' method?

Thanks a ton.

Answer 1

Is there any advantage to my boss' method?

At least two:

• force you to abandon an obsolete language (yes a little trolling inside ;)) and an obsolete technology (CGI)

• open you to the (not always so) great world of .Net

This is really important from a maintainability point of view: you'll find a bunch of cheap and skilled developers for .Net but less and less for Perl (experience talking :))

You could ask confirmation to your boss but I guess " vb.net for web application development " means VB.Net + ASP.Net

I don't know what's your decision-making power but you should convince your boss to:

• use C# instead of VB.Net for future developments because it has a greater community (just have a look at the books on the .Net technos, less and less take the trouble to target VB.Net :( ); and you can use both in the same ASP.Net application so you can develop new modules in C# and interact with the older written in VB.Net

• use the MVC sub-framework of ASP.Net, not the WebForms part (an old school technology too)

For client-side, jQuery is a good tool if you build simple apps, otherwise you'll need a more high-level framework like Angular.JS to ease development.