[plt-scheme] Re: Visual Studio .NET ...easier than PLT Scheme

 I think that the first point is just a specialization of the second.  The best reuse you'll get is at the component level, which used to be the OLE/ActiveX boundary, but now is moving towards native .NET components.  I just don't see a case where I'd want to use a .NET text box over text-field%, but being able to use a 3rd party grid control or chart control could be really nice. 
  
Also, there's been a great deal of discussion of graphical GUI builders vs. writing code - I think that this is a false dichotomy in .NET, where VS.NET simply generates code from the GUI builder and hides it inside of #region directives (if you haven't used it, VS by default collapses #region in the editor so it's hidden by default).  There's a fair amount that you can't set in the GUI builder, particularly events.  Basically, a double click on a gui widget, it'll create a handler for the "default" event (ie SelectedIndex changed for a combo box, or TextChanged for an edit box), but other events have to be wired in by hand.  That goes back to the theme: the gui builder gets you so far, but only so far.  I'll confess to being a lazy gui designer, when I have to, I do the GUI builder, but that's mostly because I've never really learned the APIs (Matthias' comment that VS is for people who want to stay dummies is too true), and because the syntax is pretty verbose.  I *never* use the gui designer in HTML because I know HTML well enough that it's faster for me to type than drag & drop.  
  
-----Original Message from Alex Peake <alex.peake at comac.com>----- 
  
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"...This speaks for wizards in DrScheme. They'd be easy to add. We could spit out tons of 
scaffolding in no time." -- Matthias 

"...Isn't the point of higher-level languages to abstract out `boilerplate'?" -- Joe Marshall 


IMHO, anyone creating significant applications in PLT Scheme would not be struggling with "wizard" 
type stuff. That is why many of us are in Scheme in the first place. 

GUI (re-use of already developed stuff), interop (with COM/.NET) and documentation (examples, 
tutorials) are where the big wins are to be had (IMHO). 

Alex