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Lightswitch wrap up
I received some interesting Email regarding Lightswitch. I think I can summarize a few of the responses as follows:
- 4GL tools will not replace code developed by professionals due to constraints of the tools themselves
- 4GL tools can be abused by using them to produce software they are not designed to create
- 4GL software can mislead non-technical people into thinking they can produce the same quality of software without any associated cost or penalties
- 4GL tools, used appropriately, can fill gaps in certain software needs where reduced capabilities are acceptable
George Writes:
I saw today’s newsletter article, and felt that I had to respond.
Although [there are ] some good points [made against 4GL code generators], I have to STRONGLY disagree with this overall point of view…
I’ve worked with many 4GL’s and languages in my 30+ years of computing, and there are always pro’s and con’s for each language and approach. But [some of the] comments remind me of the “purists” who insist on only perfect coding. No short cuts, no “quick and dirty”.
That would be very nice in a perfect world. I’ve seen that approach in a lot of IT organizations, and it usually goes hand-in-hand with IT being seen as “mostly useless” by the rest of the organization. I’ve fired some of those kind of developers because they took far too long to produce something useful.
All of business (not just IT development) is about cost vs benefit. And as you describe in your response, code generators can provide a lot of benefit even though they are not the best coding solution. They usually produce a solution faster and cheaper than the alternatives, and can also have less bugs and performance issues. The only knock against code generators is that they lack flexibility – you have to work within their pre-defined list of options. Sort of like using SAP for your ERP solution instead of coding from scratch!
In summary, I’m 100% in agreement with you in your response – anything that can provide benefit to an organization must be considered. And the only way [we can operate differently] is if we can consistently produce the required applications and reports quicker and cheaper than someone using a code generator.
Gary Writes:
We have a lot of Access applications that we need to eventually migrate to web applications. When I first read about Lightswitch it was touted as a good tool to quickly migrate access applications to web applications. This was an exciting development for our team.
However, since it has been released in Beta for the IT community to begin using, everyone is calling this tool a 4GL development language. We were excited about the ability to quickly migrate access applications to the web without having to re-architect the access applications, etc.
My question is, will Lightswitch even assist in quickly migrating Access client-server applications to the Web? As I stated when I originally heard about this product, it seemed that Microsoft was pushing it as an addition to SharePoint that will assist in getting the Enterprise off of supporting Access applications.
Can you help me understand the true intent Microsoft had when creating Lightswitch?
If you have any feedback for Gary regarding migrating Access applications into code using Lightswitch…please drop me an Email at btaylor@sswug.org. We’ll post your response in a future newsletter.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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