Hi Rod,

I'm glad that a guy like yourself (an advocate for .NET) said that .NET "has a good set" of controls and then follow that with "they are not sufficient for a real world app.". I don't know about you, but I'd like to think that the stuff most developers are creating with .NET is for the real world.

I totally agree with you that if you are going to create a real world app then you can't only rely on what comes out of the VS.NET box. The controls that VS.NET provides leaves me with a lot to be desired when it comes to creating modern GUIs.

Don't you find it strange that the VS2003 IDE has that modern look and feel (OfficeXP menus, toolbars, panes, etc.) YET you cannot create such GUIs in your own .NET Winforms application without relying on third party tools? What was the VS team thinking? That developers won't notice?

For anyone following this thread, we've found a good set of third party stuff from Syncfusion. There are many 3rd party tools to choose from, but of course, you have to pay extra for something that I feel should have already been an integral part of VS.NET! I haven't tried it yet, but, the next version I think will have up-to-date controls won't it? I sure hope so.

Just my 2cents...

Regards,

Mike




>Mike,
> FWIW it is typical to use 3rd party controls in .NET. .NET has a good set but they are not sufficient for a real world app.
>
>Rodman