Re: Consumer Based Web Development

[Thorbjoern Ravn Andersen <ravn@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron Bartell skrev:
> Something to consider with any tool that requires specialized personnel is
> that if you don't keep up to date then your labor pool shrinks right along
> with your ability to get community support.  I learned this first hand when
> the Apache MyFaces version I was using slowly set into the sunset and every
> forum answer I read just said "why don't you just upgrade to version x.x?"
> instead of somebody telling me how to address my issue with the version I
> was on.
>
> The painful part about upgrading is that things break from version to
> version.  Makes one appreciate RPG a little more.
>   
This has been described as Technical Debt.  From 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt

Ward Cunningham first drew the comparison between technical complexity 
and debt in a 1992 experience report:

"Shipping first time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds 
development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite... The 
danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on 
not-quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering 
organizations can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of an 
unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise."

I think it is a wonderful term which everybody can understand.

For Open Source libraries this means staying up to date with releases 
(on a semi-regular basis). Tedious but the longer you wait the harder it 
gets, and things tend to break badly when you are close to deadlines.

But at least you have the source so you can open up and see WHAT goes 
wrong and how to work around it.

/Thorbjørn (who shudders at the MyFace 1.1.4 upgrade in the horizont)