New to Visual Studio 2005 is the Express Editions which “ include lightweight, easy-to-use, easy-to-learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and novices who want to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites.” In conjunction with Beta 2, they also launched a new website, Coding4Fun. Is it just me or are the people depicted on the websites for Express Editions and Coding4Fun unlike any other programmer, you’ve ever met? Especially Coding4Fun guy: it looks like he has some issues. The VB guy looks confused. Haha. Perfect
They’re selling these as simplified tools for hobbyists and beginners, and that’s fine. That’s a laudable goal. But I can’t figure out why they removed VS add-ins in the Express products. Did they think it would confuse new developers to have add-ins? Is that what the market research is saying? One menu item in the Tools menu is going to deter budding hackers from coding “dynamic Windows applications and Web sites?” When I started with the Beta 1 of C# Express, I was excited about it: a cheap IDE that does just what I want. Then they got rid of add-ins!? WTF?!?! Why?
Here’s what google says a hobbyist is: a person who pursues an activity in their spare time for pleasure. It says nothing of skill level. So why reduce the tool set for the hobbyist? Does the Gus The Hobbyist developer profile specify that he’s a beginner confused by a menu item? What about Isaac the Open-Source-Project Weekend Warrior?
Did you click the link for Coding4Fun? In case you didn’t, they have a link to an article about starting your own game with DirectX. For hobbyists. Amateurs. Who do it for fun. That’s a bit like an amateur photographer getting a low-end professional camera without a tripod, then explaining to her about setting up those light parachutes for backlighting. If we added this request to the Product Feedback Center, will they listen?
I think the reasoning behind the removal of plug-ins is two fold:
1. Yes, hobbyist developers do enjoy a clutter free IDE and will even avoid VS all together or even look for an alternative if it becomes too "cluttered". I have first hand experience with this. I try to convince them the learning curve of VS pro is not all that steep, but many want to start with something simpler.
2. If I owned a company which did an excellent job of building a brand and a subsequent ecosystem around a product I would not want to give away the heart of the company for cheap (express editions) and allow third parties to evolve in such a way that they could construct a full functioning body out of the heart I gave them (ie. a customer buys express editions for cheap and synthetically builds a highly customized VS using third party addins – where is the value proposition to the original company? Maybe MS would enjoy this model through royalty fees and less coding of their own – I dunno). Don’t get me wrong third party addins play an extremely important role in a products maturation, but I beleive one has to carefully manage that relationship.