Application Blocks & ShadowFax won’t just be gone

René Schrieken was blogging about the Application Blocks and ShadowFax and that they would both disappear. That was quite the statement and even a Microsoft Patterns & Practices product manager Tom Hollander responded, saying this is not the thing.

The Application Blocks will eventually be modified and replaced by a block “library” (tentatively titled “Enterprise Library”) and are basically the evolution of today’s blocks. Tom says it’s still a good thing to use todays blocks and although I can’t read it from his reaction, we’ll probably be able to replace those blocks by the updated versions once this Enterprise Library will be released.

ShadowFax, or EDRA, as Microsoft now refers to it, won’t be taken apart or anything. Instead, the revolutionised blocks from the Enterprise Library will be inserted into ShadowFax/EDRA, so there’s less custom code and probably better understanding of how all those blocks can be used within your own project or architectural implementation.