[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
Hi Len,
This is not to disagree on you duck tape comment, but more to focus on the
paradigm shift part of the article (kuhn stuff).
From what I understand of the web today is that we simply returned to the
old "server centric" paradigm. The application per se is running on the
server and the client is barely more than a presentation client.
I like Macromedia comment about "reach" vs "rich". They say that in order to
increase the "reach" we had to regress to "poor" clients. Conversely, in era
before we got "rich" client and practically limited "reach". The next step
is simply to provide "rich" client applications able to "reach" as much
people as possible.
Going from a server centric world to a client-server or distributed
processing world is a paradigm shift. Thus, when web applications will be
running on the clients and servers will provide services, we can say that
the web got a paradigm shift.
The question is: will this era be based on:
Java/.net -----> XML -------> ECMAScript/XML/XHTML/SVG/SMIL
Or
.net ---------> XML ----------> XAML
Probably on both.
Now about commoditization: I think it's quite obvious from the economic
perspective that open source by reducing the development costs to 0$, this
would lead to commoditized software goods. There are actually two main
drivers to bring the costs down and make the software cheaper to use.
a) Out-sourcing (reducing labor cost as was previously done in manufacturing
production)
b) Open source (where it's even cheaper because you don't pay the
developers)
Since software has no physical cost for transformation it has the potential
to be a lot cheaper to produce than hardware. This is even truer if software
is produced for free. Can the cost=0$ a long run solution? I do not know and
I hope to live long enough to see the end result. Two possible scenarios:
a) a new development paradigm bring the development efforts to a new level
above coding (The MDA goal)
b) developers put themselves out of the labor force or tremendously reduce
their workforce by producing goods for free.
I personally believe in (a) and hope that (b) will not happen (or at least
until other knowledge intensive work can replace it).
I do not hear anything from people trying to do model driven development
using XML technologies. Are they shy or simply not there yet? If yes, I
would like to hear what you do.
Cheers
Didier
|
