I always thought that non-initialized variable declarations were fine in .NET, but the V2 compiler is forcing me to change my mind. Programming theory suggests that initialized variable declaration is a good practice and this was impressed upon me from my C++ days. But I thought that had all changed with .NET, especially in VB.NET. Non-initialized variables in .NET have default values.

Loved the article! I'm a fellow Chicagoan (former city gal, now in the suburbs) who also works at home. I've been working from home for over five years now (ever since CA bought PLATINUM and I just couldn't work for CA.) I've been both a consultant and an employee for companies based on either coast.

Jeffrey Chapinsky writes: The most important thing mentioned is postulates 1-3, which I think is really only one. Once these off-shore projects are done and put into production there will always be the need for a local serviceperson type of trade. The analogy here is someone may buy a washing machine from some large company, but when it breaks you call in the same local repairperson who fixes your other appliances.

I was a dBASE II programmer, then dBASE III, then Clipper (by Nantucket), and then I built an interface between an existing Foxpro application and an Electronic Data Interchange translator. Still, I missed dBASE II. I missed being able to get good results QUICKLY.

One glaring omission I noticed in your editorial is that the internet stock bubble you were riding to gain a ridiculous pay increase of 283% over four years happened on Clinton's watch. It also happens that the bubble burst in '99, before Bush took office, also on Clinton's watch.

In May of 2003 Microsoft asked me to do a keynote-like session at the Visual Studio.NET launch event in Oslo, a trip I just couldn't pass up. The problem was that I had no idea what a smart client application was. I had to quickly get smart on smart client applications. Before I go through the attributes of what a smart client is, let me tell you that back then no one could really agree on the definition of a smart client application.

Microsoft has released a new paper comparing .NET Web service performance to that of J2EE. The paper shows that .NET outperforms Java in hosting Web services. Released exclusively on TheServerSide.NET (www.theserverside.net) community site, the paper comes as a response to Sun Microsystems' performance benchmarks that show .NET Web service performance significantly lagging behind that of Java.

By way of introduction, the discussion continued below began in our May 2004 issue with an editorial Derek Ferguson wrote entitled 'On Partners and Points.' In that editorial, Ferguson questioned the validity of the new points-based system that Microsoft has recently introduced for its Partner program. Specifically, he suggested that the strong emphasis on software certification over developer certification in the new system might over time lead to a de-emphasis by organizations on getting their developers certified. Here Microsoft's 'Soma' replies in full.

In his blog (http://weblo gs.asp.net/jeff), .NET guru Jeff Putz weighs in on the culture and experience gap he sees in the .NET community. In the March issue of .NET Developer's Journal (Vol. 2, issue 3) Miguel de Icaza and Rhys Weatherley offered their thoughts on the purpose of open source software, sparking more reader feedback.

Neil Davidson's commentary - 'Mono and dotGNU: what's the point?' - questioned the value of these two open source projects and argued that they in fact strengthen Microsoft's position. Here Miguel de Icaza and Rhys Weatherley, the forces behind Mono and Portable .NET respectively, respond to Davidson's comments.

'We looked at the request,' reports Sun's EVP of Software Jonathan Schwartz, referring to last week's Open Letter from IBM about collaborating on the open-sourcing of Java, 'and our first question was, 'That seems a little bonky. Could you explain what it means?'' He was speaking in San Francisco, where he also called Red Hat the 'only...Linux distribution that matters in North America.'

Guy Smith-Ferrier's article, 'SqlClient Connection Pooling Exposed', Vol. 1, issue 12, generated a question from reader Angel Saenz-Badillos.

Although a number of readers took Editor-in-Chief Derek Ferguson to task for his November editorial titled 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Penguin (.NETDJ, Vol. 1, issue 11)?,' John Sharp - a member of the .NETDJ Editorial Board - handled it with the most style - and a touch of irony.

Scott Hanselman's coverage of Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference 2003, 'Avalon: Yes, the Picture's Changing,' generated a debate over whether Avalon is 'revolutionary' or 'evolutionary.'

Laura Barker's commentary, 'Not Performing Due Diligence Has Companies and .NET Paying the Price,' on the .NET Developer's Journal Web site was echoed by a number of developers. See her article and all of the responses at (www.sys -con.com/dotnet/article.c fm?id=389).

Scott Hanselman's article on 'The Myth of .NET Purity' (articlenews.cfm?id=356) struck a chord (with even .NETDJ editor-in-chief Derek Ferguson jumping into the discussion).

In their June column, 'Have PDA, Will Travel [.NETDJ, Vol. 1, issue 6],' Jon Box and Dan Fox discussed using SQL Server with the .NET Compact Framework. A couple of readers responded that they would prefer to see information on Palm development.

A recent query on http:// developer.sys-con.com seeking advice on whether to use .NET or Java technology to implement a Web-based accounting system elicited a great deal of comment.

In his April editorial, 'MS Stance on CLR Patent Raises Thorny Questions,' .NETDJ editor-in-chief Derek Ferguson questioned whether Microsoft's CLR patent will ultimately be used to prevent the implementation of fully CLR-compatible CLIs on other platforms. Readers respond:

This month readers sound off about .NETDJ - and offer one more response to editor-in-chief Derek Ferguson's February editorial, 'Two Views of Development,' which contrasted Java and .NET developers.

Editor-in-Chief Derek Ferguson's February editorial, 'Two Views of Development,' which contrasted Java and .NET developers, stirred some heartfelt responses:

Hurrah for the generics and iterators inclusions in C# by Anders Hejlsberg [Vol. 1, issue 1]. We propose similar features for the Eiffel language. See 'Collections and Iterators in Eiffel,' Journal of Object Oriented Programming, Vol. 6, issue 7, Nov/Dec 1993, USA.

.NET Developer's Journal Editorial Advisory Board member Peter Drayton views C# as a meaningful evolution of the Java programming language, just as Java was a meaningful evolution of C++, and C++ was a meaningful evolution of C, and so on. Here he offers a few responses to the Ars Technica writeup called 'What is .NET?' written by London, UK-based programming guru PeterB.