.NET Framework

[Leech]

Does .NET Framework and it's constituent languages make programming and application development more difficult or less difficult?

[BFD]

Without knowing what language/platform you are coming from, it is impossible to say whether the .net framwork and languages are more or less difficult. Assuming you are coming from a Windows/VB 6.0 background and will be developing managed code, the answer for the most part is that development is far easier.

The .Net Framework makes things a whole lot easier for a developer. For the most part, you no longer have to worry about choosing languages based on the need for performance. It all gets compiled to the same place. Deployment and configuration is much, much easier. A good share of the time, you can just drop an executable in place and it just runs, and even when you can't, the deployment tools in Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 are lightyears ahead of what was in 6.0.

You also have a huge set of built in libraries to work with, all of which have the same signature and behaviors regardless of the language you choose. In addition, many of these libraries have been improved and extended continuously since their pre-.net inceptions. You also have ADO.Net and ASP.Net, which are major enhancements to their non-.net counterparts (the shift to a disconnected data model in ADO.net is a little tougher to work with, but you have to do fewer manual operations).

Now for the qualifier...if you were a VB 6 programmer who did not embrace the shift towards object oriented programming, the transition to the .Net languages will be rather difficult. If you don't understand properties, methods, inheritance and such, there will be a steep learning curve. In addition, the strict typing requirements of managed code generates a little more work.