

Microsoft is ignoring .net developers - MichaelApproved

I'm a .net developer trying to code with Facebooks Connect API. Microsoft invested $240 million in facebook but hardly a dime in .net developers. Now even FLASH has a better supported library than .net developers.<p>Recently I posted my frustration with MS with other .net developers 
http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=52107<p>I doubt it'll have any result, it looks like the project has been abandoned...<p>Am I crazy to think MS should officially support Facebook (esp since they invested in the company) and also come out with a real alternative to wordpress for .net developers? If I were a developer just starting out I'd have little reason to use .net instead of php.
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mahmud
> Am I crazy to think MS should officially support Facebook

You don't need a corporate behemoth to give you an API for a web service. You
can bitch about MS withholding binary API for its system calls, but the web is
wide open baby! XML protocols are the easiest to implement, no wonder there
are clients for all the major languages, and the not-so-major ones:

[http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Client_Librari...](http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Client_Libraries)

MS is a platform vendor, it can't afford to hitch its wagon to a wild horse
like a web application; these things come and go, but the platform stays (even
if it changes face.)

If you want tight integration of "facebook" with Visual Studio, you will
probably have to write your own plugin. Or use an open development
environment, even if you target a proprietary OS.

Cheers!

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MichaelApproved
These libraries may be open source but they're still written/managed by major
companies. PHP library is managed by Facebook. The Flash library is managed by
Adobe. The .net library? Abandoned at codeplex...

Part of being a platform vendor is releasing libraries. Adobe isn't waiting
for a public team to write their product, they just did it themselves because
it adds value to the platform.

Writing and maintaining a library for facebook doesn't require that many
resources. Now I know you're response is going to be "Then why don't you do
it." I wont do it because I can't write every little bit of code.

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mattmcknight
I don't think MS was investing in Facebook as a development platform- they
were just trying to buy into some page views. MS definitely thinks Sharepoint
is the alternative to wordpress- really!

The more striking thing about your comment to me is that .net developers may
tend to wait for Microsoft to build a library for them while members of other
communities self organize to build their own. It's very nice for the
developers when MS does something, because it's generally good enough, but it
seems like it's harder to get open source projects started because of the
chance MS is working on it secretly.

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MichaelApproved
But in this case Microsoft actually paid a third party to develop this POS and
they both decided to make it open source. People, like me, want to contribute
but the project has been abandoned so our changes/upgrades wont get
integrated.

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blasdel
Grow a pair and fork it. You could even / _GASP_ / write your own!

You're not Jeff Atwood, you haven't built up a persona of being a proud idiot
that can't code his way out of a paper bag without getting a blessed library
from on high. You _can_ do it yourself. You are a big boy with real tools. Do
it.

It is just not difficult to poke a webserver over HTTP, especially when you
have a documented and widely used interface provided to you on a silver
platter.

~~~
Element
No need to refer to someone more successful than you as an "idiot".

~~~
jibiki
What does that even mean?

