Don Responds to the InfoPath Infidels

"Now that more people have InfoPath in their hands, it seems everyone has some sort of reaction to it.
 
My favorite negative reaction is from Richard Tallent. While I love James Snell's reaction, here's my response:
 
  1. "Rich" client required. Never forget that InfoPath is from the Office group. Their raison d'etre is to sell "rich" client software. By most definitions of the term, they have been successful in this endeavor. To the degree that they remain successful, InfoPath becomes part of the desktop computing ether. Of course, this sword has two edges...
  2. No security. Given that InfoPath produces editors on top of "raw" XML files in the file system, I'm not sure what they could do that couldn't be circumvented by notepad.  That stated, for apps that don't put the XML into the file system, one could either (a) produce different forms for different security profiles or (b) write some JScript. Neither one is especially elegant for the average IT user.
  3. Where's the .NET? Yeah, where is the .NET? Yes, the web service support is nice, but there's no managed code support. While I would be surprised if COM interop wouldn't work to let me write the C# code, I have no intention of writing MSXML code in C# (assuming it would even work).
  4. No controls. Without #3, this one is moot in my opinion.
  5. No offline access. Hmmm.. I've been extremely happy using the file system as my offline store. No magic required. Again, InfoPath is primarily an editor construction kit, so it seems weird for my editor to do this stuff for me.
  6. No user base. See #1.
 
It's important to note (as James Snell does) that InfoPath was developed by the Office team for the Office customer.
 
Is it the perfect development tool for all XML applications? No.
 
Is it an interesting step along the way? I think so."

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