Well, since .Net Web forms applications are too reliant on at least 99 web.config configurations to be working properly, I have adopted the simple "Razor" approach for my website... C# code + html, kinda like the good old ASP with VBScript mentally... Very easy to set up a consistent website look with the site-wide shared layout features of "Razor" for web pages...

However, it's not easy to make it work with Web Forms applications/controls so I wonder which way YAF is going - Will it be moving towards MVC or will it be a .Net 3.5 compatible Web Forms application forever?

The .Net 4 + MVC seems like a more appealing way to go, in my personal opinion...

Razor ".cshtml" pages are just great for us "amateurs"...

Just my simple thoughts on a Tuesday night... 😄

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It's been said that the next version of YAF will require .NET 4 to run, but I don't know if it's being converted to MVC or not. Jaben or the other developers will be able to clarify that further. I know on our production servers for one of my sites, I'm stuck with the version we have because our servers run Plesk 9.3 and you can't get .NET 4 installed without upgrading Plesk to at least 9.5 or higher - with over 100 domains on the server, that's not a task I'm ready to take for only two sites running YAF --

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I should write about the couple of things.

As to Razor is there any advantage in perfomance for a forum?

Is ti worth their salt?

MVC requires more time to implement, it's only simple when you have a simple layout, but it's much more difficult to debug when it's a complex one. YAF has some things written in MVC. But developers doesn't have time to fully migrate to it - else you'll never see new features for a long time and will see bugs only in a functionality which previously worked fine.

As to .NET 4 - it was mostly an emergency. It was not first planned for 1.9.x. But as we moved to VS 2010 it happened that it's become difficult to control.

Anyway it's recommended to migrate to 4 by a lot of reasons. Of cause if you have a lot of domains in Plesk -it's a real headache, but the transition will be required in future as more and more soft uses .NET 4 advantages. YAF is trying to stick even to SQL Server 2000 - as the database migration is the most sensitive task, but there're things which will slow down develpment and 3.5 - is the main problem. Currently YAF is a multi threaded application: thread safety, working on WebFarms, flexibility, etc. requires . NET 4 features.

Agreed on many points -- we are fighting the task of migrating Plesk. We will be end-of-lifeing the server within next year or so -- and at that point, there will be major update of everything involved.

To be honest, If .NET 4 is a requirement, then SQL-2000 will become a thing of the past. If you're on a .NET4 capable server, yout SQL should be atleast 2005... The only way I can see the legacy issues is sites hosted where they have an Enterprise level SQL2000 server, vs running a slightly less capable version for just their forum code. We have SQLExpress available to our clients on our servers free and even on our heavily saturated servers, the SQL engine keeps up just fine with no real issues --

You guys are in a real pickle with development -- it always happens when technology advances faster than the software does... It's part of the reason I am not a major developer... I do websites here and there, and little stuff -- no .NET -- it's too much of a pain in the rear for me to learn - and the time it would take for me to learn it, I'd loose too much money putting off projects I'm currently involved in --

You guys do good work, and I am appreciative of the software - keep it up 🙂

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