You are blindly accepting that the code is secure when you really don't know if it is or not until it is too late. The rule of thumb is that if you don't know if you are being hacked or not, then for all practical purposes you are being hacked.
In your book, you mention .NET programming with nAnt, nUnit, nDoc, and many other tools, IDEs, and application interfaces. Have you come across any new programming tools that developers working in open source .NET should look into before tackling their next project? Which of the available tools do you personally find most useful?
.NET open source is always evolving at such a rapid pace! I have a blog and a wiki on my Web site where I try to keep up on useful things. A new project I am checking out now is Nini because I find .NET Configuration Classes a little lacking sometimes.
By far the most useful tools are: NUnit, NAnt, CruiseControl.NET, Sharpdevelop, Reflector, and Log4Net. These are tools that I use every day.
I also find many of Microsoft's Application Blocks are useful and respect what work James Newkirk is doing there, but I am still hoping they will make those projects open source.
As .NET and the open source movement continue to evolve, what impact will that evolution have on application development? Do you eventually see a day when the line between open source and proprietary software is so blurred that it becomes for all intents and purposes meaningless?
In my opinion I don't think these two camps will ever reconcile their differences. Open source is the only software development "organisation" that can compete with Microsoft. Microsoft can't figure out a strategic business plan to compete with open source. With each competitive product analysis Microsoft does, they are only lending more credence to the open source community. I do think there will come a day when most users and developers (on both sides of the fence) will take the right tool for the job and not really be too concerned about its licensing.
Tools make the project
The concepts detailed in Open Source .NET Development are not abstract theory. They are practical, tested methods already being used successfully by numerous application developers. Like any other artistic endeavour, proper tools make the project. As an application developer, you should always be striving to acquire the tools that will make your coding more efficient and more effective. Download Chapter 2, "Open Source and the .NET Platform," to get an overview of the potential benefits you will receive from combining open source tools with the .NET development environment.
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