Re: The fable of DEMETRIUS, CONSTRAINTICUS, and AUTOMATICUS

Laconic2 wrote:

>
> "Kenneth Downs" <firstinit.lastname_at_lastnameplusfam.net> wrote in message
> news:9lv9lc.vdt.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
>

>> No reverse-engineering.  There is a one-way street that goes:

Admittedly I have no ambition to change human nature, which tends towards reverse engineering. What was it I read here a few days ago about the OO promoter who says, "You'll be able to reuse code!" And the prospect says, "What about the code I have?" And the punchline is, "oh throw that away."

My employment terms allow me to release my tool under the GPL, but w/o the reverse-engineering I see a slow uptake. This is ok because its real purpose is to make the company productive, and nobody else. If anybody else happens to be able to use it, great.

>>
>> Human being or design tool -> text file spec -> tool -> database
>>

I would take a look at it purely to see it upgrade a database w/o interrupting anybody else, I have no answer to that riddle as of yet.

<BIG SNIP>

Thank you for the details on Data Architect. I have actually taken to heart your earlier recommendations towards that product, and have spent no small amount of time on their site. The crystal ball shows Data Architect in my future.

ISVs generally are loathe to be dependent upon a third party product, it is not as natural a fit for us as it is for somebody on the inside. For us it must be licensed and distributed to every single customer. Every ISV has a least one horror story of a crucial third-party product disappearing in a merger, or failing to keep up with technology, or blah blah blah. Also, many of these tools really seem aimed at the insider, so they stress the GUI and the interaction with other popular tools, while the ISV wants something that streamlines the delivery of HIS product to HIS customers on HIS highway.

So while I have some overlap with DA, the intersection of our purposes is far smaller than the union. Their focus *appears* to be on design, with the updating of a database being something that is still in their future (as per their roadmap). I think our emphases might look like this, where the height of the graph indicates the amount of emphasis:

Data Ken
Architect

  \                /
  |\              /|
  | \            / |
  |  \          /  |
  |   \        /   |
  |    \      /    |
  |     \    /     |
  |      \  /      |
  --------------------

They are all about design, producing ultimately a spec, but by my standards having little or no installation abilities. I start with a spec and want a full blown automated installation. Not just java stubs, but full blown code.

I am asking myself, how do I sit at my desk and work out a new feature, see it go through testing, out to the ftp site, downloaded by the clients at their convenience, put through their test and live, with zero human intervention, zero coding, and no dependency on a third party?

-- 
Kenneth Downs
Use first initial plus last name at last name plus literal "fam.net" to
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