I looked at the MS Application Blocks (it's called Enterprise Library now) some time ago, but I wasn't impressed. There's a lot of good stuff in these disjointed components, but most of them are horribly inconsistent in behavior, don't integrate well at all and most importantly are overly complex. Most require extensive configuration before you can even use the functionality and the docs for configuration and getting started are awful. You pretty much have to look at source code to get any sense about how these things work.

The only reason this lives IMHO is because it comes from Microsoft, otherwise I suspect nobody would bother with it. There are better frameworks out there to do the sort of things Enterprise Library tries to accomplish that are better designed and easier to use. Ultimately the latter is the primary reason why you'd want to use a framework in the first place..

+++ Rick ---


>Hi all -
>
>Reading here and elsewhere getting information on frameworks, including Strataframe and CSLA... Have hear a few developers mention Microsoft Application Blocks as a "framework" but not really finding lots of discussion or information that would help in our analysis of .NET frameworks.
>
>So, is MS Application Blocks a true framework? Pros? Cons? And if it is a full-fledged application development framework why hasn't it been mentioned in the various framework discussions here?
>
>Much thanks!