ALT.NET: what does it mean?
Posted by Davy Brion on August 8th, 2008
A lot of people think ALT.NET is about using NHibernate, Castle Windsor, StructureMap, Resharper, Rhino Mocks, MonoRail, or whatever tool or library you can think of. It’s really not about that.
From altdotnet.org:
We are a self-organizing, ad-hoc community of developers bound by a desire to improve ourselves, challenge assumptions, and help each other pursue excellence in the practice of software development.
And that is really the essence of what ALT.NET is about. It is about continuous improvement, and sharing knowledge. Nothing more, nothing less. Whatever concept or tool that allows us to improve either ourselves or the way we work, should be used. No matter where the concept came from, or who created the tool.
We are often thought of as being anti-Microsoft. And although some of us probably are, that’s not what it’s about. We want quality. We want to work with as little friction as possible. I am pretty sceptical (to say the least) whenever Microsoft promises us the latest and greatest in whatever new product they’re working on, because i’ve felt the pain of their latest and greatest far too often to blindly believe whatever claims they make. But if they release something that allows me to do what i want to do without restricting my development habits (and i think ASP.NET MVC is looking pretty good on that front) then i will use it. Gladly even. Because i really don’t care where a tool or a library comes from, as long as it’s good. I definitely have my preferred set of libraries/tools but i’ll drop them in a heartbeat when something better comes along.
So when is a developer ‘ALT.NET’? According to altnetpedia.com, you are ALT.NET if you are:
- The type of developer who uses what works while keeping an eye out for a better way.
- You reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community: Open Source, Agile, Java, Ruby, etc.
- You’re not content with the status quo. Things can always be better expressed, more elegant and simple, more mutable, higher quality, etc.
- You know tools are great, but they only take you so far. It’s the principles and knowledge that really matter. The best tools are those that embed the knowledge and encourage the principles
Now tell me: How on earth did it ever get this far in our industry for this mindset to be considered alternative?
August 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Spot on with your last sentence: how on earth did we get this far?
August 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[...] ALT.NET: What Does It Mean? (Davy Brion) [...]
August 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Now tell me: How on earth did it ever get this far in our industry for this mindset to be considered alternative?
The day that common sense in the .NET space was thrown at the door. This somewhere collided with the day that the average .NET developer/architect thought that C# was the new Cobol.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
[...] The concept of Alt.Net is that a group of .net enthusiasts get together and organize a conference by themselves for themselves to discuss .net, its past, present and future. Simply put, the audience organizes and gives the talks. Here's a more profound explanation: http://davybrion.com/blog/2008/08/altnet-what-does-it-mean/ [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 3:57 am
I call it ‘use the best tool/design pattern/ideas for the job and it doesn’t have to be made by Microsoft’.
That is my ‘alt.net’. When I hear words like ‘we can’t use NHibernate, we have to use Entity Framework’ – I say ‘why?’. ‘Oh, well it’s from MS and we can’t use non-MS projects – we are a Microsoft shop only’
I like things that ‘just work’