>> Although I certainly don't base my tech decisions >> solely on market influences I do think it's >> important to consider them. A person who knows >> some XML is certainly more valuable in today's >> programming market than they would have been 10 >> years ago (how old is XML anyway?). In another >> 10 years that skill may have continued to become >> more valuable or it may be less valuable due to >> increased supply of programmers who are >> proficient with XML.
> Hmmm. I see your point. Take it a bit further and > add in the whole "global economy" type deal- and > what's easier to transport than the Internet? once > it's connected, so to speak... computers are pretty > close to the internet. We're pretty close to > computers... hmmm... The comment I forgot to make in that post was that really I think the trick is to find handfull of technologies you like that are on the up-swing (since they all rise and fall) and stick with them as long as you can. This should make it easier to add other complementary skills as the demand for them increases and mitigate the risks involved in devaluation of any individual skill as a result of increased supply or waning demand. As an individual I'm personally probably more invested in ColdFusion than anything else, potentially over-invested actually. > I guess we shouldn't be to reliant on computers, > neh? (-: My opinions on that subject tend to be pretty unpopular. :) >> There will always be work to be done, just like stuff >> > will always be built on other stuff. The real meat and >> > potatoes are in the "sum is more than the parts" type >> > deals. I don't think language or popularity have much >> > to do with it, sorta. >> >> I tend to agree. I think ColdFusion as a technology does >> a good job of encouraging synergies. > No doubt. It's like java, but even more fun. :-) > I still put forth that generated code is generated code, > why shy away from generated code? So long as it's well > formatted (don't look at me, you saw my regex ;) you > should be ok, I recon. It's a question of who's generating it and why. :) To me the fact that my coldfusion templates or CFC's are generated Java is transparent. I know it's there, but I don't have to care too much about what's being generated, beyond knowing that it is generated and having some understanding of the problems that can be caused by that. The ColdFusion server actually doesn't allow me to look at or modify the generated code myself -- I can't reverse engineer those generated files or make changes to them except by proxy in my CFML code. So the end result is that although I'm using generated code, I'm not working with generated code in any way. This is significantly different from the form of bean generators that have become popular in today's "ColdFusion is java-lite" community (or as I understand it in the Java community as well). In this community, you definitely do care how the code is generated, and you're likely to make modifications to the generator if not to the generated code. The generator then produces a slew of beans (I don't like these in general anyway, preferring value objects), which are all the same or may as well be. Thus a sweeping change would need to occur in each bean or require a change to the generator and a re-build of its generated code. I personally find it easier to simply create objects which are flexible enough to not require generation and use composition or inheritance to allow me to make sweeping changes. The sweeping change then is a line or two of code, instead of a larger modification to the generator and a rebuild. There are cases in which I've built code "generators" although not of the sort that are popular of late. I generally view it as a last resort. One example is the skinning aspects of the Blogs onTap application. A user provides a layout for their blog in the form of an XHTML template (a default is provided) which is then converted into a collection of about 4 CFML templates using some CSS which strips undesirable content (primarily cfml and javascript) using XSL and prepends a cfimport tag to the beginning of the document, which allows the templates to use several pre-defined custom tags for displaying different elements of the blog's layout such as the calendar, author image and various links. This allows the blog owner to have some limited control over dynamic elements without giving them free reign to use cfml code. This code generation is more specific/controlled and imo less potentially frustrating than bean generation. > But that's coming from someone who, using line breaks and > MS Word, smashed several hundred pages of mish-mash into > a C^HSV. They weren't commas, so I deleted the C, see? > :P It would be a dream to get a bunch of pragmatically > generated documents compared to that. Programs you can > reverse engineer, whatnot. People are so random, sorta. > [...] Ya lost me. :) >> > Note my use of "security" as "work" - as I believe >> > "good people" automatically have the type of job >> > security that most people talk about, and somehow >> > conflate with "work". >> >> I'm not so convinced, although it's nice to think that >> would be the case. > Yeah, I know there are good people looking for work. > Always. But there is always work for good people. > Like you said, it pays to get the lay of the land, > and take advantage of stuff when you can and what > ever. We limit ourselves so much without even > meaning to. Huxley was spot on there. Filters. There's a reference (Huxley) I didn't expect. :) > It's always kind of scary to jump tracks, and I > think we get it in our heads we want to do a certain > type of work, so neglect opportunities elsewhere. It also stems from simple physical limitation. :) There are only so many opportunities an individual can persue, particularly at the same time. >> I'd rather see something like BETA win over VHS, >> > than buy into the whole "economics of numbers" >> > mentality. >> >> I remember being told that the US passed a trade >> embargo that prevented Betamax from being sold >> in the US, which of course artificially deflates >> the demand for BETA. I never researched it tho. > I wouldn't doubt it, but it's also just part of > evolution. Stuff that makes it is the stuff that > makes it. It ain't the strongest or fastest or > many of the easily predictable factors you would > guess straight-off. It is evolutionary, but it's an artificially imposed evolutionary force. I think there are a lot of things that could be better in general but aren't because of artificial limitations imposed by people with money like the WTO, who were ostensibly chartered to help underpriviledged nations, but in actuality have done more harm than good if you consider their track record of passing regulations that benefit the wealthiest countries at the expense of the poor. There's a decent documentary titled Yes Men by some folks who did some research on the subject. > Or it is, but that whole butterfly in Tibet or > whatever, ya know? The right thing at the right > time, and bang, you're father of some type of > legacy. And conversely, some other legacy never > occurs. I'm familar with the concept of the "butterfly effect", although I'm not certain what connection you were trying to make. > I'm thinking posts of this nature probably > belong on cf-community, inflammatory or no, > but I haven't signed up. Frankly I'm a > little afraid, as I can get all > philosophical-like on "focused" lists, so > hazy ones are, um, frightening. If it's > more kosher I can manage to keep to > more CF specific topics tho. They probably do. In practice the cf-community list mostly talks about politics. > Thanks for the improved regex. You're welcome. :) s. isaac dealey 434.293.6201 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/author/4806Dealey.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:237389 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
