RE: Time to get serious

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, I don't mind, John.  As long as the word gets out.  <smile>

Just as a counterpoint here, I also program pure Java solutions.  In
situations where small applications NEED to be platform independent, you
can indeed write them in Java.  And here's what I find:

It's all in your object hierarchy.  If you start out with a smart,
flexible hierarchy, you can indeed get to a point where you start
becoming very productive.  But that hierarchy is not easy to come by.
In fact, I've been honing a database-independent and UI-independent
business object hierarchy for several years now, and it still requires
tweaking for each new venture.  Once it's in place, though, I can
usually add features pretty quickly.  I have another framework that is
primarily RPG, and in it I'd be much farther along much faster, but
adding certain features would take more time because I'd have to touch
more code.

So, the tradeoff is a massive upfront investment in a hierarchy versus a
much quicker initial delivery time that may require more effort when
adding new features.

And note: the initial upfront investment is not something you can skip.
If you do NOT get your hierarchy correct, the price you pay in
refactoring is ENORMOUS.  Don't let anybody kid you that they just code
what feels good that day and refactor it later.  It's simply not true,
except for the most trivial of code.  In an OO design, the object
hierarchy is every bit as important as the database layout in a
traditional design - take the time to do it right the first time,
because doing it over is going to hurt like hell.

Joe

 

> From: John Brandt Sr.
> 
> I'm going to steal this quote, use it as my own and only give Joe
credit
> when Joe catches me using it (only kidding).