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The Past, Present, and Future of Server-Side Web on Windows

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In the beginning

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Server-side scripting (VBScript, JScript), XML/XSLT, etc.

Generate markup on the server, push to client

Relatively little work happening in the browser

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Skillset mismatch between application dev and web dev

(languages, statefulness, etc.)Interpreted execution, synchronous

I/O… bad perf and scale

“Your markup chocolate got in my app logic peanut butter”

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Thus was born

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Page-based forms over data metaphor “unified” application and

web developmentStill generating markup on the server

Still not much happening in the browser

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Increasing web app sophistication pushed boundaries of the framework

Forms over data metaphor not always desirable

Law of Leaky Abstractions

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And so we got a few modest improvements

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And some slightly more ambitious ones

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Utilize latent CPU cycles on the client

Improve the user experience

Maintain a developer upgrade path

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Plug-in based app model died on the vine

Canned AJAX behaviors performed poorly, unattractive relative to newer

options

Microsoft zigged, the world zagged

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Then, a bit of a reset

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Borrowed from Rails (and Smalltalk, etc.) to achieve formal separation of

data, logic, and presentation

Back to generating “real” HTML

Still integrated with core ASP.NET pipeline

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Still (mostly) about server-side markup generation

Still drags around legacy ASP.NET (Web Forms is still in your

AppDomain!)Heavyweight, prescriptive model

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Meanwhile, the world moved on

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So more recently… a few nods to reality

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However

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Modern web stack isstatic HTML + JS + CSS + JSON

Web API is great, but by default I get System.Web.dll too

<sadTrombone />

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Do I Really Need ASP.NET Anymore?

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Fast, scalable network server - hosts V8 JavaScript engine

Simple model:lite EXE host + JS libs you choose +

your code

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Vibrant ecosystem: routing, view engines,security, data access, etc.

Multi-core concurrency is achieved viamultiple processes, not multiple threads

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All I/O is non-blocking, uses internal thread pool

Non I/O-based request processing occurs on a single threaded event

loop, with minimal per-request allocation

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So, node is great for two main reasons:

Async I/O ensures high scale

Event loop model helps ensure minimalmemory allocation per request

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So it’s settled, then?Node wins?

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The <ahem>Empire</ahem> Is Striking Back

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Host

Server

Middleware

Application

OWIN and Katana

owinhost.exeIIS

YourApp.exe

System.Web

WCFHttpListene

r

Web API

SignalR

YourWare

Task Invoke(IDictionary<string, object>)

Task Invoke(IDictionary<string, object>)

Task Invoke(IDictionary<string, object>)

IDictionary<string, object>

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ASP.NET Project “Helios”

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Helios is an OWIN-compatible network server

Helios requires IIS, but does not run in the context of System.Web*

Helios can run outside of OWIN proper

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Take the good parts of ASP.NET (pluggable programming models,

async, IIS integration, etc.)

Leave behind the bad parts (System.Web monolith, weird stuff

like 401 302, etc.)

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Borrow liberally from node (async bydefault, extension via middleware,

minimal ceremony, etc.)

Still utilizes thread-based concurrency vs. node’s event loop

model

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Doesn’t support higher-order models like MVC (may or may not ever

support these)

Cannot reference ASP.NET pipeline intrinsics…HttpRuntime, HostingEnvironment, etc.

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In several important ways,Helios is “node.net”

Almost certainly represents the future of ASP.NET

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Introducing… the HAIR stack (?)

Helios – AngularJS – IIS - RavenDB

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How to satisfy two core constituencies?

How to foster node’s third-party module community for Helios?

Node’s appeal: simple, opt-in dev model?Or is it JS on the server?Implications for ASP.NET?