ASP.NET MVC > ASP.NET WebForms, Why?

Question

I\'ve now completed my first web application using ASP.NET MVC and overall, I still am not grasping why this is getting all the praise and glory. Maybe I\'m being stubborn. I k

Answer 1

What's great about ASP.NET MVC is that is doesn't try to hide how HTTP works. To fully understand ASP.NET MVC you need to understand the technologies of the web.

While webforms are adequate as long as you work to their strengths, they're ultimately a very leaky abstraction when you don't. While the drawbacks of viewstate have been well discussed by this point I think it's the extremely unwise attempt to mimic the behaviour of Winforms that is the underlying flaw - viewstate is merely a product of that.

The web controls which ship with ASP.NET also leave a (hell of a) lot to be desired as anyone who has tried to build an accessible website can attest to. The web controls show a total lack of understanding for how frontend development is done, and frankly are a disgrace.

With ASP.NET MVC all that nonsense is done away with. You're not shielded from HTTP, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript - if you come to the party with those technologies the framework gets out of the way and lets you leverage them. If not, then thankfully it doesn't try to help you to pretend they don't exist.