Show HN: Oak - dynamic C# and ASP.NET MVC (Rails Inspired)

amirrajan.github.com

16 points·amirrajan··5 comments

Just a little bit of background. Oak builds upon ASP.NET MVC, but leverages the dynamic capabilities of C#. I wanted to create a stack that is FRICTIONLESS to work with (a concept that is foreign to .Net devs :-P). I've been working on this project for over a year now and am finally to a point where "polish" is the number one thing I'm concentrating on. So don't pull any punches.

This looks intriguing. Thanks for sharing it.

That said, I'm having trouble figuring out what it is. :-) I think the challenge may be that it's multiple things: a way to generate some code, a way to create databases, a way to run automated tests, a way to do model validation, a different "flavor" on top of ASP.NET MVC for things like parameter binding. I guess I'm wondering how those things relate, which could be used independently, etc.

I wonder if others are similarly struggling to understand what this is all about.

I can see how that can be confusing. Rails is a development stack. It gives you exactly what's needed to get an app up and running quickly. It also provides the means to keep the app maintainable. Oak tries to provide that same experience to .Net devs. These components can be used independently, but the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

This is great stuff but it appears to be simply porting parts of Ruby and Rails to .NET. Why not just use the original?

There are just those devs that don't have the privilege of working with something that isn't .Net. This provides those individuals with a way to experience frictionless web development in the stack their tied to :-).

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