This is the third in an ongoing series of articles about my team's transition to the Asp.NET MVC Framework.  In my last post I blogged a bit about how I haven't quite got comfortable enough with the new MVC framework to feel über productive.  What augments the feeling is the difficulty of finding quality information.  The data is few and far between and only sometimes relevant.

I was struggling yesterday to find information on the ComponentController class.  Things I was finding were from the Preview 2 release but finding something on the Preview 3 release was a bit more challenging.  Things are rapidly changing in the framework and the MVC team is not afraid to refactor, rename , or even remove a class.  For example, with the release last night, ComponentController is no longer a worry of mine because it's now gone, removed completely from the framework. 

The MVC framework has been around for under a year (Nov 2007 I believe).  It is now in it's fourth iteration (Preview four, released last night).  While a number of people have downloaded and are using the framework the amount of data/tutorials/blogs/articles pales in comparison to the same information about web forms.  This makes finding the info you need much much tougher.  It's exciting though and must say I enjoy the challenge.  The change in releases doesn't bother me.  It's a bit of a nuisance but I signed up for this trip.  Also the changes are for the better.  The ComponentController class that was replaced yesterday was not easily testable.  The MVC team removed it in favor of the Controller class, which is testable!  Fundamentally it boils down to the fact that I trust the guys on the MVC team and where they're going with the framework.

That trust doesn't help me day to day in moving my project forward though.  In order to find the data I need I've had to be both resourceful and thorough in my reading.  The trick I've found is following a few bloggers closely and reading all of their posts regarding MVC and all comments made to the posts (that's where I find the real gems, in the comments).

Here is a list of bloggers I'm following, obviously some are well-known, others are not.  If you follow some bloggers who post about the MVC framework that aren't on my list please share!! My list:

• Scott Guthrie
• Phil Haack
• Scott Hanselman
• Rob Conery
• Matt Hinze
• Ben Scheirman
• Matt Hawley

Updated to add new blogs (7/23/2008) ... thanks Ben

• Steve Sanderson
• Stephen Walther

Yesterday I reported that I was learning to walk and while I can't quite say I'm walking yet,  I'm feeling a bit more comfortable.  My velocity increased ever so slightly today and I'm encouraged by that and excited for tomorrow!  And to be quite honest that's a perfectly find place to be.