Developers need to change their mindsets to quickly adapt to new tools and to not be territorial when it comes to their favourite tools.
This is according to Robert MacLean, technology evangelist at BBD, a custom software development company.
MacLean says it's not uncommon to see the potential demise of a favourite development tool being taken as a personal insult with the subsequent rage, denial and stomping of feet by developers.
He adds that panic is also a common reaction when a favourite tool is threatened with the proposal of substitution by a competing tool, especially if the people involved don't know enough about the usurper.
"There are many examples of tools being put out to pasture over the past few years," he explains. "WinForms, for example, was very popular, but when Microsoft brought us WPF, there was major push-back from those who did not want to change and learn a new tool. And it's not simply a case of changing and forgetting; only last month, I was asked about WinForms vs WPF again."
He is of the view that the mindset change needed is to remember that a platform is more important, powerful and useful than a tool.
With the arrival of Windows 8 and the associated changes surrounding this new platform, MacLean notes, nerves in the development community are on edge because of the rumoured demise of Microsoft's Silverlight.
In this scenario, he explains, it is very important to take a step back and see what the platform is and how knowing the platform means that tools can come and go, but developers are still able to work, code and make a living.
"The platform Silverlight uses is XAML-based UI [user interface] technologies, a core set of how we can lay out UI components using an XML dialect called XAML. This platform also has lots of options for things like binding, the MVVM patterns, and so on, that are either difficult or impossible to do with other UI technologies."
According to MacLean, XAML-based UI technologies started with a single tool - WPF - an implementation of the platform designed to run on top of the .NET framework.
A second tool, Silverlight, later appeared, designed to run as a browser plug-in. Then a third tool, Silverlight for Windows Phone 7, appeared, and while very close to Silverlight, it had its differences as it was a mobile implementation, he notes.
The last few months have seen the appearance of the fourth implementation of the XAML-based UI technology - WinRT. This is the runtime in Windows 8 and, when developing with C#, VB.NET or C++, the UI is just another implementation of the platform, he points out.
"Every implementation of the platform has been different, sometimes in big ways, and sometimes in smaller ways, but the core of the XAML-based UI technology platform hasn't changed and there is not a single rumour, plan or hint that we are even close to seeing the end of XAML-based UI technologies," notes MacLean.
"We may see a tool come to the end of its life, as rumours about Silverlight claim, but the platform remains and grows. And at the end of the day, learning and understanding the platform is always more important, powerful and useful to both the developer and the customer in the long run."
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