Re: Ruby On Rails on the iSeries

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Tom Jedrzejewicz
>
> So don't use it.  Doesn't your tool make it easier for a person not
> familiar
> with (whatever) to develop systems that use (whatever)?  I am not sure I
> see the difference?

Actually, there is a bit of a difference in that my tool isn't about
developing business logic.  My tool is about quickly putting a
standards-based interface onto existing business logic.   RoR is being hyped
(at least by some) as a complete enterprise development environment, and
that's the only thing I'm cautioning against.

Please, I'm not anti-RoR, just not convinced it's the answer to all IT ills.


> Some businesses may use these platofrms, and accept the risk that goes
> along with having applications developed by someone other than IT.

Yes they may.  But there aren't a lot of companies using Excel as their
transaction processing environment.  There is a reason that SMBs go from
Excel and Peachtree to midrange ERP systems as they grow.  The intricacies
of business logic can be daunting even for programmers, much less people who
have no training in IT procedures.  In the perfect world, you have
subject-matter experts (non-programmers) who talk to IT implementers
(programmers); the IT staff insulates the subject-matter experts from things
like security and internationalization and change management.  There are
some in the RoR community who seem to think that RoR can supplant a full
enterprise stack like J2EE or ILE.

I may be something of an elitist; I'm still of the mind that dynamic typing
in the hands of a non-programmer leads to systems that are less maintainable
and more prone to systemic bugs that are difficult to track down and fix.
RoR may well prove me wrong, and I'll be happy to see it.  I'm just trying
to be a little voice of caution amongst the overwhelming wave of zealousness
that tends to surround new technologies, good or bad.

Joe