There's A Big Controversy going on these days...

It sometimes shows up as Java versus Perl|PHP|Ruby, but it's actually about bureaucracy and CYA versus getting the job done. It used to show up as "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM," but these days, it's "web systems need to be enterprise-ready."

I let my programmers talk my partner and I into building our second generation web hiring app in Java with EJB on JBoss, and, yes, they were able to get it working and it's nice, but now, as we add features and bifurcate for modular products, they're discovering how much of A Big heavy Rock all that support code is and how little they need it. They're trying to slip little things like "rewrite in Spring instead of EJB" into the timeline for the separated products. Hmmm...

Meanwhile, in my day job here at SNL, as I've told you, I've been cranking out dozens of Really Useful Things using Embperl and Ruby that are solving problems for people in their daily lives.

I'm not suggesting that there aren't real applications that need the protections that layered code and team-oriented development using design patterns and Application Servers et al provide -- just look at all the hiring Home Depot is doing in Austin, TX on Dice.com -- but they are really few and far between. There are advantages to be had on many levels through developing upon these foundations, certainly, but a carefully crafted scripted web system is a better choice for 95% of all projects, in my !(so humble) opinion.

<ADVICE>
So, the next time you're faced with a Management Decision to implement An Enterprise-Ready Application, just roll the Dice and do a search for 'Software Development'. There's certainly going to be at least one monster project going on somewhere at any given time, and all you have to do is count the number of people being hired. Show that to your PHB, and then be ready with your proposal for getting the job done effectively with far less cost.
</ADVICE>

Don Wilde
"There's more than one level to any answer."
UPDATE corrected title spelling; tnx jdporter!

In reply to Whither scripting? Will scripting wither? by samizdat

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