This post began as a discussion between
my brother and I after the preview release of the new MS MVC Framework. Both of us were chomping at the bit to get our hands dirty with this new piece of Microsft technology. One of us suggested using it for a new project that we were about to start for a client. The other one had his reservations with such a forward-thinking and proactive approach, suggesting rather that use on an internal application would be a better idea. Which one of us felt which way? Well - unless you were at
Philly Alt.Net's December meeting you'll never know - better to leave sibling rivalry remain between siblings ;)
Getting into the nitty gritty of a new piece of software is a noble trait. You can't fault someone for being proactive. And in this particular case, the MS MVC isn't all
that different from previous work we've done with
Castle MonoRail. And obviously, the sooner you start working with something, the faster you'll learn how to leverage the tool to your needs. It may even give us the ability to provide feedback to the MS MVC team for bug fixes and enhancements to the RTM (Released To Manufacture) version.
But sometimes, when you play on the bleeding edge, you run out of band-aids. The risk involved in building software on top of a framework that hasn't been RTM seems pretty straightforward. There may be bugs. Features may be incomplete, missing or cleaned up before RTM. This isn't such a big deal when you have the time and resources to roll with these punches, but when you're under the pressure of a deadline and a budget, the amount of refactoring might be too great. Not to mention, client buy-in could be tough on a product they can't rely on and a lack of support from the manufacturer as part of the license.
Again - there is no question that getting the jump on a new technology has its benefits. But there are also some pain points when being the first one on the bandwagon - those horses may be too much for you to control. The question is whether or not the benefit of the new framework outweighs the possible problems.
What does everyone else think? Not just about MS MVC, but about EAP/CTP software in general? Would you take the plunge or play it safe?