Wendy Smoak Wendy.Smoak-at-asu.edu |U2UG| wrote:
> My point was that "for free" often isn't.  If you can buy
> a packaged solution for a few thousand dollars, and not
> have to maintain and support it, [as long as it does what
> you need it to,] it's probably a better deal.
> 
> I like working with Java and UOJ, but honestly I'd rather
> have a normal SQL database, use Hibernate, and spend more
> time on the website functionality instead of the data
> access layer. 

Wendy hit it right on the head.  I've made a business of writing, selling,
and supporting software that does technical things that most people don't
know how to do.  It's not that it's rocket science, but implicit in our
products is a lot of know-how that's required to make things work "right",
not just work at a precarious paperclip and duct tape level (please forgive
the ongoing metaphor here).  While anyone can copy/paste code, there is a
difference between an answer and a solution.  Our code has error handling
and error reporting, it's supported to provide for changing technologies,
we monitor for security threats that our clients should know about, and we
can answer questions and adapt to new business needs where a copy/paste
artist cannot.

There are a number of developers in our market just like us.  There is a
phenomenon going on in the IT market, spurned on by Linux and open source,
where people seem to think that everything should be simple and free.  I'm
sorry folks, but it's technology and real solutions are rarely simple or
entirely free.  The "free" web solution that was originally requested in
this thread is costing a lot of people here a lot of time, and without some
basic know-how, those who implement the free copy/paste answers are going
to continue to ask a lot of questions at other peoples' expense.  I have no
objection to free exchange of information, but in forums like this we
should be able to expect some base level of competence in the subject
matter.

See you at Spectrum!

Tony
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