I work for a software company that's looking to get into .NET.  I've
dabbled with the technology for a bit, and had some positive resutls.

My boss is asking me that he wants to buy a framework that delivers a
lot of the common functionality that .NET developers need.  Things
like generating DataSets to call against databases, generating code
for Windows and Web Forms, deploying the applications and so on.

He's nervous that we're going to need to write so much code to write
decent .NET applications that any project we will do will be very
expensive.

I'm having trouble finding frameworks like these.  I can find code
generators like DeKlarit, but is there anything a bit... well...
bigger?

If anyone knows of anything I'd be very grateful to get an answer. 
:-)

Regards,
Karl

You might be interested in ready solutions like these:
http://asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=9&tabid=47

Visual Studio .NET 2003 is a great IDE that does a lot of the stuff
you described.

.NET has so many cool features and ways of maximizing developer
efficiency (especially with visual studio 2003) that you'll probably
be very pleased.  You can easily find a 60 day demo of visual studio,
and I think Microsoft also hosts online demos of it.

I highly suggest not using code generators if all possible. I highly
suggest taking the time to develop an apporpriate architecture for
your software needs with in your department. This is time consuming on
the front end but when done correctly it will buy you more time and
features within a few months.
I have gone through several product life times in the .Net framework
and upgrading products to .Net. It is very important to develop the
right architecture in house if possible. This takes a true software
architect to help develop this.
I understand the issues with developing and moving to .net because I
own a software company and I can not over emphize the importance of
taking the time to develop the correct architecture. If you do choose
to use something to help you develop code fast you might run into
limitations with their architecture or what you are trying to achieve.
If I knew a little more about the applications I could make a better
suggestion. Let me know if that helps

Jonathan
MCSD(.net) MCAD(.net) MCDBA