Is Razor mature enough to use it in application right now? [closed]

Question

Good day!

I'm planning to upgrade WebForms application and I have two possible choices:

• Write it in ASP.NET MVC 2.0 with WebForms view engine and upgrade it to 3.0 when it will be out

• Write it using ASP.NET MVC 3.0 RC with Razor as view engine

It seems that Razor is the only 3.0 feature I really can take advantage off for this task.

The launch date for application is Q1 of 2011 so there is a chance that ASP.NET MVC 3.0 will come out as RTM.

So, is Razor mature enough?

Answer 1

From what I've read I don't think upgrading a 2.0 app to mvc 3.0 will be that difficult. So I am sticking with the stable code for now, and then upgrading once a stable release of 3.0 is out. I think it will be just as much work to start with 3.0 and then fix all the little changes upon the actual release of it.

Bottom line for me is that MVC 2.0 is fully functional and works with few issues. They have not called 3.0 a stable version yet for a reason.

Answer 2

There is more to MVC 3 than Razor, but you aren't specific so will hold my peace.

As regards Razor, it is just a ViewEngine. No different to Spark, NHaml, etc. So even MS can get that right first time out. Is it mature? No. Mature enough? Well, at least it is not decrepit like web forms... Why write XML when you don't have to?

I am writing a new app in MVC 3 and so far, the only issue I have had is with a couple of helpers that return void. It was easily solved, see Adapting a custom Html Helper for Razor

As MVC 3 is at the RC stage, you should be fine with your time line.

The killer for me is future proofing. I am definitely going to use Razor in future, so all new stuff is best written in what I will be using.