ALT.NET

by Dave on April 10, 2007

in Old Blog

Scott Bellware has a post entitled “On Being the NHibernate Mafia.” The term “NHibernate Mafia” is amusing to say the least.

In the post Scott rejects the term and gets at the ethos he, I, and lots of others are trying to evangelize and bring to the .NET community: It’s not the tools, it’s the solution. For me it’s often the maintainability of the solution. How easy can I evolve/change the solution? I’ll tell you what, I’m sick and tired of dealing with legacy code.

If there has to be a label, I’ll propose a new one: ALT.NET

What does it mean to be ALT.NET? In short it signifies:

  1. You’re the type of developer who uses what works while keeping an eye out for a better way.
  2. You reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community: Open Source, Agile, Java, Ruby, etc.
  3. You’re not content with the status quo. Things can always be better expressed, more elegant and simple, more mutable, higher quality, etc.
  4. You know tools are great, but they only take you so far. It’s the principles and knowledge that really matter. The best tools are those that embed the knowledge and encourage the principles (e.g. Resharper.)

When tools, practices, or methods become mainstream it’s time to get contrarian; time to look for new ways of doing things; time to shake it up. The minute Entity Framework surpasses NHibernate, I mean the very instant it empowers me to better express my intent, so long NHibernate. It’s been real, it’s been nice, but I’m on to the better thing. Of course it’s not as black-and-white as all that. It’s up to us to stay aware, educated, and to give our input. It’s not a game of wait-evaluate-wait-evaluate, it’s a matter of contribution.

Sidebar: You know I wouldn’t call the meeting between the Agile folk and Microsoft’s ADO.NET team the “Entity Framework Smackdown.” It was a “Mind Meld” and a healthy one at that. There was a lot of passion going on, to be sure, but folks were listening to each other all around.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “there are always two parties; the establishment and the movement.” If you’re ALT.NET, you’re in the movement. You’re shaking out the innovation. When the movement fails, stalls, or needs improving you’re there starting/finding/supporting that next leap forward.

  • Jon
    What a crock of shit. You've clearly not been around long enough to see the last round of ISVs get swallowed/destroyed/decimated by the very entity that "empowered" them to use their "tools" and "solutions". MS.

    Use anything MS-based at your peril. 'Cos it surely ain't at theirs ...
  • Looking forward to reading your blog. This post resonates well.
  • I'm not sure that David Larabee named the term ALT.NET.

    Anyway, great blog.
  • Andy Stopford just asked me if I was planning to attend the the ALT.NET conference. I said "What's that?" He expressed dismay that I hadn't heard about it, since I write NUnit, which he thinks of as an ALT.NET tool.

    Tracking it down via google, I eventually found this blog, which originated the term. This seems as good a place as any to post a comment on how the term strikes me.

    It's an interesting term, seeming to suggest a reaching out to a broader community, but at the same time containing the proprietary ".NET" as a suffix. Folks who are writing about it seem not to see the irony. In practice, it actually seems to denote a subset of the broader .NET community, those interested in tools not produced by non-Microsoft tools.

    Being part of a "community" is different from working with a particluar platform. I'm not part of the .NET community, mostly by choice, so I obviously can't be part of the subset that is ALT.NET. Personally, I think that's too bad, both for that new community and for me and others like me, for whom it might have provided an alternative to the unwelcoming (there I said it) .NET "community."

    So my suggestion is to rethink ALT.NET as a subset of the .NET community and start reaching outside of it - into the agile and TDD world, for example - maybe even into the world of alternatives TO
    .NET, where lots of cool tools are being developed, many of which happen to work quite well on .NET.

    Charlie
  • Although I think the label will stick now I personally think Indie.NET has a nice ring to it.

    In the UK Indie is what we call alternative music but Indie stresses the independent from the mainstream (though many indie bands go onto become mainstream).

    Therefore Indie.NETers would be "Independent Thinking" over Alternative which IMHO fits better with what the label is trying to signify.
  • I would like to comment on the name ALT.NET. I agree with what David Laribee meant and Ayende clarified. I think that others are getting off track and forgetting that the central principle is to focus on the solutions that the tools enable. This requires and open mind: to be available to change no matter where it comes from. This is an inclusive frame of mind. The word ALT pushes away from the core of what David tried to capture in the label. I would like to propose a change in the label: Noble.NET. Everything that David describes is noble. There is nothing about the word noble that depends on excluding. ALT depends on some people being IN and some people being OUT. This creates the us and them mentality which is always an unhealthy place to be. Everyone can become a Noble.NET developer.
  • Dave
    Funny though not quite. Strangely I've had that theory floated before. I should learn not to title posts "Metaphor Fetishism" I suppose.
  • Kevin
    Ha. So anyways I was thinking more about ALT.COM, and how you must really be into S&M...
  • Doh! I was wondering where my credibilty went! Thanks, SOne. I'll head back to the CodeRoom and see if I left it there. I think I might have left it under my copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Overkill Web Frameworks. Perhaps you'd like to meet me there and we can see once and for all if I know my stuff. My rules though... none of this drag-and-drop ASP .NET identity provider crap to get in the way of TDD.
  • SOne
    I dont get it. Scott Bellware is not one you can take advice from. He lost credibility with his stupid appeareance in the Code Room Pilot. And being and MVP and not knowing a shit about to use MS techs.

    What a looser...
  • Dave
    Surely parts of the Java community are mainstream. There's, I'd argue, an ALT.Java thing too... witness the trend away from EJB toward Spring/Hibernate/etc. That and a lot of the things influencing my style of work now were started by agilists working on Java projects (JUnit, ant).
  • si
    Java isn't mainstream?

    There are more jobs for Java than .NET, at least in Australia.
  • Let's make an ALT.NET the mainstream then:)
  • A'braham Barakhyahu
    Good gravy, there are others. I tried to explain to some other M$ developers, but couldn't put it into words like you did. ALT.NET is how I feel. M$ provides a tool ( a good one) that I use to build soloutions in, but I don't revolve around M$ and whatever they spit out. I look for good development. Fantastic post. I think you just got a new subscriber.
  • Absolutely right on David!
  • Dave
    JP is ALT.NET to be sure and, having seen him in action, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a better coach. Note that his blog is now at codebetter. Check it. It's a good place for him; the codebetter crew rocks it ALT style.

    Above and beyond that ALT.NET is an Attitude. Do a lot of reading, playing with tools, get out there in the community, dogfood your theories, join the conversation, start a blog, find some mentors... Yeah, acquire the Knowledge and develop the Skills, but start with the Attitude.
  • @Mike Mahon

    If you want the full-body immersion, and not just the sprinkling on the head, watch out for JP's bootcamps. I'll be heading out to the next one (hopefully).

    http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/
  • Mike Mahon
    Where can I be baptized in ALT.NET?

    Also, I really am intrigued by the, and I say this with some degree of reverence, "minute entity framework". That phrase kinda makes me tingle.
  • Please someone in Argentina read this article!!!

    I'm very frustrated working in the establishment. Really needing some movement.

    Translated to spanish in http://agilizando.tumblr.com/post/764063
  • It's got a ring to it.
  • Indeed! ALT.NET it is, then.
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