Thanks for the thoughts Thomas. Lots to mull over.

>For a tiny project like this try to assess how good your memory of the way the tools have to be used is intact ;-)
>Involving MereMortals plus DevExpress for the thing I currently visualize is somewhere between "overkill" and "going against KISS"
>
>If you ***can*** churn out screens with that stack without going back to the docs automatically from previous usage, in my book adding the technological debt of a heavier stack (brittleness+load times) vs. better customisation options will be trumped by lesser "programmer time" cost ;-))
>
>On MVC/MVVM: Craig is spot on with identifying MS' ***current*** position as MVC, but MS can be described as a heavily moving target. In Java land MVVM is marginal compared to MVC, in Javascript land a sizable set shies away from the question ("MV*"), some are clearly MVVM (Knockout...), more call themselves MVC than those citing MVVM., M_VP is more client side (underscore needed as to not call up MVP)..
>
>Even in a project running under MVC flags, ***I'd*** implement (if wearing architect hat as well) the Contoller angle leaning closely to the VM pattern: data driven, an object responsible for view states distinct from persistable data object(s). Coming from personally thinking MVVM is superior to MVC as architecture AND reading quite a few JS fwk patterns calling themselves MVC but implementing something that could be called MVVM if you squint a tiny bit ;-))
>
>Also - if you use your old stack: consider the pattern used dominantly in the stack when it was written.
>Update:
>From your original question I expect a more server side based approach. Current craze puts more interest client side, SPA, Angular and so on. Normally I`d lean that way as well, but you did not ask about that - and it might fall into the "overkill" area as well ;-))
>
>>I am going to start developing a simple ASP.NET application using the existing tools that I have. These are:
>>
>>Mere Mortals.net
>>DevExpress ASP.NET
>>Visual Studio 2010 Professional
>>
>>I don't want to purchase anything else as this project won't really cover any new expenses.
>>
>>The system is a front end for a 4 or 5 table database with no real data processing, just CRUD operations and a couple reports, exports and creation of Word Documents (Is openXML still the way to go for that?)
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>>So, some advice is welcome.
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>>Should I bother with Mere Mortals or not? Anything else out here that is freely available which replaces its functionality? I haven't done anything using it in years so I'll have to re-learn it anyhow. Will the DevExpress stuff work easily with MM.NET?
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>>Should I go with MVC, MVVM? Something else?
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>>Is Entity Framework still the best thing to use?
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>>Should I go with the free newer version of Visual Studio? I think I used VS Web Express 2013 a couple years back.
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>>So many questions :)