Re: JavaFX viability was->Re: Pete's web5250

>You are thinking about doing things the way they have always been done with different technology.

Not necessarily, I just know how to recognize "technology over-excitedness" when I see it. Heck, I have played the over-excited-programmer more times than I care to admit - but I am learning my lesson. I still get quite excited over new technologies, but I am doing a much better job of critiquing these days. The same exact thing happened (or is happening) with XML web services and distributed SOA. People get so excited about a concept that they integrate it all over the place, not once thinking about how they could have solved the same problem in much less time using different approaches and still meet the user/business needs. Most SOA and XML is a band-aid for the lack of insight required to get your core business processes on a single platform - just calling it like I see it. The first adopters of internal home grown distributed SOA are in the early stages of realizing this now. Give it 5 years and the rest of the industry will also see the gross amount of complexity web services have introduced. Don't get me wrong, there are VERY legitimate areas for web services - but as of right now there are more wrong uses than right ones. I would guess the same to be true for "offline" business applications that aren't personal based.


>As to your it's only for personal applications comments - were you around in 1985 to hear how many times the mainframe guys (and others) made the same comments about minis and PC's ?

In my 1985 kindergarten class we talked about Number Munchers and Oregon Trail :-)

It is interesting you bring this up because shops are now trying to get rid of the PC as much as possible and go back to the mainframe approach (i.e. everything hosted on a server and accessed via thinclient/browser). PC's are really only necessary for specialized personnel (like software developers, designers, etc) IMO. PC's in the end are really good for what they are named after "Personal Computer". They sure aren't money/time savers in the enterprise for the majority of users if you ask me. The desktop PC is getting thinner by the day. I wouldn't ever say PC's were a mistake, but many attempted uses of them we can now do without since networks are more powerful.

Alright, your turn :-)

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com


Evan Harris wrote:

Hi Aaron

I don’t want to prolong this any more than necessary so I’ll try to keep it
brief, but two points stand out:

You are thinking about doing things the way they have always been done with
different technology. Why not allocate the order number when it gets loaded
from the local client into the ERP system ? Uniqueness problem solved. Why
*not* have the inventory file on the users PC ? You only need to communicate
changes when they go on line. Initializing the file is a one-off effort.
Once again, can you get my point - this is an example of what can be done if
you want to, not necessarily the answer to the questions you raise. I'm just
demonstrating that you can solve the problem if you want to.

As far as ROI goes, what appears to make the salespeople and others
productive is what determines ROI. Since it is in a spreadsheet anyone can
make it come out to any number that proves their case (cynicism intended). I
have never seen yet an IT department win an argument against a
logistics|sales|inventory|purchasing|marketing executive - pick your title.
Once these operational guys decide something adds value to the business or
offers a strategic advantage IT better deliver. IT's view of ROI will be
overlooked, so your ROI argument is meaningless.

As to your it's only for personal applications comments - were you around in
1985 to hear how many times the mainframe guys (and others) made the same
comments about minis and PC's ? What the users *want* will drive this change
regardless of what we think or indeed what is actually the right answer.

Regards
Evan Harris