Editor's//Comment
Code Crusaders
By David Riggs
Ahman Green, a runningback for the NFL s Green Bay Packers, sports a prominent Batman tattoo on his left calf and has a burgeoning collection of Caped Crusader memorabilia. Asked why he is so fascinated by Batman, Green likes to say that it s because Batman is a formidable superhero who possesses no super powers. No x-ray vision. No bionic strength. No telekinesis. No, Batman wages his battles against evildoers sustained only by his wits and his fortitude and a little help from a really cool car, an appropriately themed outfit, and an earnest young sidekick.
Like Batman, you also face daily dilemmas with no super powers on which to rely. You have only your education, experience, and intellect (and probably some cool third-party tools). Maybe you have an earnest young sidekick, maybe you don t (whether you wear a cape and tights is really none of my business). Either way, you go into battle with little more than your wits and fortitude. And you re going to need every bit of those traits that you can muster.
Why? Because it seems like more and more is being asked of developers these days; more and more we are expected to be coding superheroes. Although development platforms are becoming increasingly productive, more applications are connecting to legacy or external systems and data sources, resulting in additional complexities. This increase in complexity results in more failure points and more spaghetti code. This added complexity requires that code be divided properly so it can more easily be re-used, maintained, and managed.
Addressing the subject of layering ASP.NET application code in The Stratifier, Dan Wahlin shows us how we can become coding superheroes. Dan targets the fundamentals of creating n-layer ASP.NET applications, and discusses the pros and cons of separating code into distinct layers. Throughout the article Dan demonstrates how code can be divided into layers to promote better code re-use and maintenance.
Creating applications that scale well, promote code re-use, and ease maintenance takes thoughtful planning, long hours of heads-down coding, and copious amounts of testing (sorry Staples, there is simply no easy button). With articles like Dan s, and continued contributions from Dino Esposito, Steve C. Orr, Michele Leroux Bustamante, Mike Riley, Jonathan Goodyear, Bipin Joshi, and others, asp.netPRO provides the tools you need to succeed.
So there s no need to don a cape or wriggle into leggings you can still be a coding superhero without having super powers. Thanks for reading.
David Riggs is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and its companion e-newsletter, asp.netNOW. Reach him at mailto:[email protected].
