Q:

What would you choose - XPages or old forms style development?

Most of our Lotus Notes developers do not have XPages experiance. They are used to doing old style forms development.
We are designing a new Lotus Notes database application that is required to be used in disconnected (offline) mode.
Why would we use XPages in this application instead of using old forms based application? (Keep in mind the existing skill set, learning curve and disconnected feature requirements).

A:

As David said there are many enhancements in Notes 8.5.3 which make the disconnected XPages experience much better. With the latest Upgrade Pack 1 you can even install a supported version of the extension library which allows very rich applications to be deployed. 8.5.3 UP1 works on non windows clients also.
Newbs

