Microsoft Lightswitch and Code Camp
by Nelson on Nov.11, 2010, under General
I normally attend code camp (http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com) but this year I had a wedding on Sunday, so I only got to go on Saturday. I spent most of the day looking at Microsoft’s new RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool, Lightswitch, with their Senior Program Manager, Beth Massi. She gave a couple of talks which peaked my interest in the technology, mostly because it offered a quick way to prototype systems.
When I got home I gave it a try…and it almost works! Well, that is to say, you can define a bunch of tables and screens and have it create an application for you, but it’s still in “pre-release” mode and that shows. The key seems to be to define the data as completely as possible first. Don’t even think about the screens until your sure you have your tables defined and their relationships, because the screens don’t update based upon changes to the data (which they shouldn’t really). As you design these elements (data and screens) they go into a big old XML file…which get’s corrupted and won’t let you into the project after that, but hey, it’s “pre-release”.
Anyway, I’m sure on the next release it’ll be much better.
