The Five Stages Of An ASP.NET 5 Developer

I am starting to develop more with ASP.NET 5. My journey through beta 5 to 8 has been an interesting one, with much left unexplored. This post hopes to poke fun at me. Developers may receive insight into what it is like transitioning to the new platform.

1. Excitement

The drumbeat gets louder as we approach a Release Candidate. It is hard not to be swept up by the many videos, blog posts, and documentation around ASP.NET 5. At this point, I am on board with the rhetoric coming from the core Microsoft team.

This new release is one of the most significant architectural updates we’ve done to ASP.NET. As part of this release we are making ASP.NET leaner, more modular, cross-platform, and cloud optimized. – Scott Guthrie

The Microsoft PR machine strolls over with a pitcher of red liquid in hand. It asks me in a smooth and silky voice, “More Kool-aid?” Without hesitation I answer, “Yes, please! My cup is getting empty.”

2. Confusion

ASP.NET 5 is a masterpiece in transit. It is manifesting right before us. Using the technology now is like taking a test drive of your next car on the manufacturing assembly line. Some of us are courageous, or dumb, enough to take ASP.NET 5 for a spin.

While documentation is available, it is consistently behind the ferocious speed of the ASP.NET team. I spent hours trying to figure out how the architecture has changed and how I can use it. Who or what can help me now? I am a developer adrift on a vast and empty ocean, waiting for a lifesaver.

3. Anger

It is overwhelming when muscle memory dictates that “it should work a certain way” and it doesn’t. Development, what felt fluid and dynamic before now feels jarring and slow now. If you don’t curse once during your transition to ASP.NET 5, then you are not human. The urge to punch someone for changing everything you knew and loved will wash over you like waves on a beach; It will swell, crest, and crash. You may even hear the siren song of Node beckoning you to desert the ship.

4. Denial

At this stage, I begin wondering, would it be that bad to stay on the current generation of ASP.NET? I have built some great applications, libraries, and more with what I have today. Maybe this next generation is just a fad and a result of Hipsteria inside the walls of Microsoft. A hysteria caused by skinny jean, man bun, MacBook users. No person is going to use this, right?

5. Success

Holy moly! I compiled and ran my first ASP.NET 5 application. It only took hours massaging project.json to get the correct dependencies. I feel better for persevering through the pain and coming through the other end a better person.

Conclusion

I am excited about ASP.NET 5 and the possibilities that come with it. I should embrace change, which is easier said than done. There will be times that I get confused, angry, and doubt what I’m doing. It is important to acknowledge all my emotions. More important is to separate them from the technical merits (or lack thereof) of a particular technology. Only when arriving at the final stage should I evaluate my whole journey.