--- title: "Sherpa: Another Code/Layer/Application Generator" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2005/8/17/sherpa-another-codelayerapplication-generator.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2005/8/17/sherpa-another-codelayerapplication-generator.html" published: "2005-08-17T16:12:00" updated: "2005-08-17T16:12:00" tags: [".Net Original"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "I'm not much of a fan of various \"Application Generators\" software, but Sherpa seems to be an interesting find. It's allows full application generation but with inherent extensibility (by changing templates, XSLT and…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # Sherpa: Another Code/Layer/Application Generator By Roy Osherove August 17, 2005 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) **Historical article** · Originally published August 17, 2005; technical details may be outdated. I'm not much of a fan of various "Application Generators" software, but [Sherpa](http://www.propersonal.com/) seems to be an interesting find. It's allows full application generation but with inherent extensibility (by changing templates, XSLT and other measures) I haven't gotten the change to use it yet on anything real, but it does seem promising. The nice thing about these kinds of apps is that they \*can\* save lots of time when creating standard boilerplate code and such (which [CodeSmith](http://www.codesmithtools.com/) helps with as well, as do other tools), but they can also help with creating full blown simple applications to be customized later. Yes, there is an architecture-Lock in: Once you have a working app you're bound to use the architecture generated to change stuff, but if you play your cards right and simply enough, you might find that most changes require part of code-regeneration rather than fiddling with unknown APIs too much. Again - there's a thin line between a code generator and application generator. Sherpa seems to provide both abilities: Generate as much as you want, including Data Layer, business layer and I believe a UI layer as well. And it's supposed to do it in a manner which will not make experienced developer cringe at the thought of looking at the code. ## More in .Net Original [All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) - Aug 22, 2005 ### [Tips for a successful MSMQ-enabled application](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/8/22/tips-for-a-successful-msmq-enabled-application.html) - Aug 17, 2005 ### [\[Audio Interview\] Ingo Rammer and Christian Weyer On Distributed Applications Architecture And Practices](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/8/17/audio-interview-ingo-rammer-and-christian-weyer-on-distribut.html) - Jul 14, 2005 ### [\[Audio Interview\] Steve Cook -Software Factories and Domain Specific Languages](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/7/14/audio-interview-steve-cook-software-factories-and-domain-spe.html) - Jun 22, 2005 ### ["Visual C# .NET compiler could not be created" - Possible solution?](https://osherove.com/blog/2005/6/22/quotvisual-c-net-compiler-could-not-be-createdquot-possible.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/