[WEB400] Re: Modify the IE Browser

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Buck wrote:
> As for Joe's comments regarding keeping the logic that's in place, I can't
> agree more.  Yes, it sure seems like a temptation to completely re-write and
> start over (now that I'm so much smarter than I was - HA!)  But look at
> Netscape: whilst they re-wrote their browser to fit in the constrained
> memory model, Microsoft blew them apart in the marketplace.  Very few ISVs
> are willing to go down the same road, which is why 'refactoring' has such
> appeal.  I can also speak from the home-grown software side of the house,
> having done that for 17 years.  My employers were completely unwilling to
> spend an hour to re-write something that was working well enough.  If I had
> to go into the code for other reasons, it was OK to re-factor, but extensive
> re-work was frowned upon.  The last major code construction/development
> effort was back in the days when we moved from card/batch processing to
> workstation/transaction at a time processing.  And even then, many of the
> 'individual transactions' simply fed our old batch files.  It took years of
> incremental improvements to become completely transaction oriented.
>
> The point of this monotonous note is to try to explain what companies with
> small budgets and small staffs go through when faced with a major technology
> change.  I hope I was able to convey some of that...

The NetScape comparison is flawed for a lot of reasons: quickly 
changing technology, little income, a competitor with billions in 
its bank account. Ironically, now it is IE which is expected to 
remain stagnant for the next few years while other browsers are 
already providing better quality and innovation.

I can sympathise with the attitude "if it ain't broke, don't fix 
it". But at some point, any company may still come up against a 
competitor employing a different methodology, developing a product 
from scratch, that may well blow away yours. At some point, your 
code base may well be too brittle to easily respond to changing 
market conditions, where the easier response it to start from 
scratch. I suspect there's already an awful lot of RPG code in that 
particular boat, and the need to add a "webified" interface 
certainly isn't helping any.

My point is that a paradigm change may well be necessary for many 
shops. "Webifying" a tradional green-screen app (using whatever 
tool) may well give it a few more years of life. But in my (perhaps 
jaded and cynical) opinion, it's only delaying the inevitable.

Cheers! Hans