I have a large .NET 4.x project that needs upgrading to a new version. I have decided that .NET 6 is the one, but I dread the thought of doing it, hundreds of thousands of lines of code, outdated libraries.
On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 12:48 PM Greg Keogh <[email protected]> wrote: > It's not Friday but ... the last few years of being a .NET developer in > the transition period from full Framework through Standard to Core has been > one of the worst periods of my career. We've had so many targets, > libraries, versions, dependencies and releases that I have little trust > that anything I write or publish will work or have any shelf life. Maybe > the full arrival of .NET 6 will bring back the simplicity and stability > that I last experienced in the Framework 4.5 days. > > By a long shot, my worst suffering in recent years has been caused by > compile problems and runtime crashes due to DLL versions and binding. I > assume others here, like me, have exhausted man-days or weeks trying to > solve DLL hell with System.Http or Newtonsoft (special mention!!), or many > other dreaded names that just keep turning up like turds you can't flush. > There have been times where I've had to update some library reference, and > I spend 6 hours trying to make it compile and run. I've recently had > problems (non-breaking ones) that have taken weeks of spare time research > to overcome. Sometimes I reach the point of tears, so I just go and sit > outside and read a book or clean the gutters to clear my head. In 40 years > of programming, I've never experienced times this bad. There are often days > where I spend more time Google searching for samples and answers than I do > actually developing software, seriously! > > The reason I'm so morose today is that I've just spent 2 days trying to > get Python 3.7 to call one of our .NET library suites for data analysis. > Using the excellent Python.NET package I came so close I could smell > victory, but it was snatched out of hands by a Threading.Extensions 4.2.0.0 > not found DLL Hell crash. Normally you would add a config file and > redirect, but I'm in the goddamn Python runtime environment. More Google > searching suggests vague and difficult workarounds that will take days of > research, with no promise of success. > > Is anyone else upset that software development is so hard? I know some > people who are abandoning IT and preparing to retire because the burden of > keeping up with all the latest technology and tools on different platforms > from different vendors is just too much for them. One chap said that even > taking time to become proficient in Git and version control would be worse > than a lobotomy. > > *Greg K* >
