Re: Web Front End Advice

[Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Vining wrote:
> Besides "whats actually going on", learning the lower level support also enables you to know what the system is capable of, as opposed to what the tool provider decided to surface/externalize.  It lets the application developer know when it might be appropriate to dive a bit deeper and directly use an API or similiar construct.  

Not only that, but inevitably when you use any framework, there comes a 
time when you use that framework in a way the designer didn't intend.  
This typically shows up as a defect, or at least an operational anomaly 
(in IBM parlance, an "unpredicted result" <grin>).  In any case, when 
the code doesn't work the way you want it to, if you understand the 
underlying code, it's much easier to identify the reason for the failure 
and make an intelligent choice as to whether there's a workaround, 
whether you need to change your design or whether you may have to 
abandon the framework entirely.

But sort of the side benefit of knowing the code is a retained sense of 
ownership.  Too often these days (and this is me settin' in my rockin' 
chair, with my teeth in a glass beside me) when something doesn't work 
right, I hear the words "they should..." as a prelude to some complaint 
about how the framework doesn't work "right" and it's not the 
programmer's fault, it's that damned framework.

Heck, back in the day the compilers made mistakes.  We had to identify 
those, and then go in and fix the generated code manually (and then 
remember to do it every time we recompiled that code).  But that was our 
job - our job was to make the computer work.  And while computer 
programming has gotten much more complex over the years and it's 
unlikely that any of us would get a lot of productive work done without 
some help from tools, I still say that the number one thing that 
differentiates a programmer and a coder is a thorough understanding of 
how his tools work.

However, this is dangerously close to an opinion-oriented rant, so I 
better quit <grin>.

Joe