Ken Schaefer

PingBack from http://moderntech.thegeekyblog.com/2007/12/06/what-is-volta/

Ken, As a recovering, err.. former, IT Pro myself, I'll take a stab at explaining. With Volta you: 1) Build your application, in any .NET language (C#, VB, J#, etc.), initially as a single tier client application--just like you would build a WinForms, Console, or other .NET client application 2) Add declarative tags to your class and method declarations to say what part of the program should run on the server 3) When you compile Volta generates: - the client program, either as a .NET client application or as a standards conformant DHTML/JavaScript; - the server program, as a set of standard ASP.NET web services; - and all of the communication, serialization, synchronization, and security code to bind those tiers together 4) You can then debug across both tiers simultaneously, and with nothing more than a checkbox instrument your code for end to end profiling. 5) With real performance data in hand from the profiling, you can incrementally refactor--i.e. move pieces of code between the client and the server or make synchronous calls asynchronous--by simply moving around the declarations. So, instead of writing Javascript code for the client, C# code for the server and manually managing the communication and all those other boilerplate activities, you can write a single code base and concentrate on your application's core functionality. Architectural decisions can be based on real performance, not just intuition. Refactoring requires moving declarations, not porting large blocks of code from one language to another. Profiling, debugging, etc. all become both easier and more effective. In effect, Volta means less manual labor required to build software+services applications. Hopefully this helps clarify. Alex

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. It sounds really cool. I suppose the real test will come with the sort of code it generates, and the flexibility with which you can place your location tags. But the idea of being able to move bits and pieces between tiers in such an easy manner sounds very intriging.

Cheers

Ken