Re: looks like some web developers are getting back into 4GL environment...
- From: Thomas Day <tomday2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ryan_gaffuri@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 14:53:53 -0500
No, I'm not jumping to conclusions. A couple of decades of experience
as everything from computer operator to program manager entitle me to
an informed opinion. I've worked as a systems programmer,
applications programmer, QA & CM manager, applications group manager,
etc. If there's a job title in the IT industry from "pushed the
janitor's broom" to "shucked and jived the customer out of his very
last penny" then I've probably held it.
When I worked as a developer I was very application-centric. The
database is just a datastore to hold the application's results until
they are reported.
But when I work as a DBA I'm very data-centric. The application is
just glorified SQL to input and extract data. If the end users were a
little more knowledgable you wouldn't even need the application but as
it is you have to hold their hand so give them some pretty screens to
look at and try to edit out their most egregious mistakes.
Now, what's the RIGHT way to look at the IT world? That's a business
decision, not a technical decision. There is no one-right-way.
Depending on your business needs and resources you emphasize one view
or the other. Forget marketing slogans and feel-good pats on the
back. The business will emphasize one view or the other.
Usually, if the business is small it will pride itself on being agile
and offering customized solutions, so it will be application-centric.
New products, new solutions, "Yesterday is the Past, Tomorrow is Our
Future", etc. And that should work for them.
And if the business is large it will have a huge repository of
historical data; much data but little information. If it organizes
that data wisely and systematically it will make extrinsic that which
was intrinsic and may find new areas for profit and expansion. But if
they destroy the intrinsic connections in the data for the sake of
ease-of-use for one particular focus then they have deprived
themselves of something that could be valuable (trading a birthright
for a bowl of porridge). So they are data-centric, or should be,
regarding the data as an asset and not an impediement. And that can
work for them.
My problem with RoR is not that it is extremely application-centric.
That's what it's supposed to be and if it's used correctly I believe
that it would be wonderful to work with. My problem is that
incompetent technologists (come on, you know who you are) will want to
use this as a one-size fits all solution.
As soon as you try to share a RoR-based database with some other
application or try to graft an RoR-based application onto an existing
database it will be very ugly.
But let's not argue. Time will tell. I expect that RoR will be very
popular until the incompetents find out that it's not the magic
bullet. Then they'll move on to something else.
--
//www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
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