Point and Click Demo Considered Harmful
PDC. Wow, did I finally find the right conference. It's so refreshing to sit in a room of software architects and listen to a session presented by software architects (Birds of a Feather "Microsoft Patterns & Practices - Are They Relevant to Me?") - the audience not only understands what the presenters are trying to accomplish and the approach that they've chosen, but they are also challenging the ideas and techniques themselves. Finally - mental stimulation.
An interesting theme rose out of this session. Real world developers and architects know that there is much more to application development then simply dropping a grid on the page and hardcoding "select * from authors" into the datasource. It was felt that the "wow" demo (the RAD Point and Click to simply construct your application), most often given by presenters of .NET features, was harming the overall credibility of .NET. The message was "Microsoft (and others presenting/writing on their behalf), please stop oversimplifying and short-cutting examples, especially when 'preaching to the converted'. It only helps to undermine and belittle all of the incredible technology underlying the framework."
All of this out of a 9pm session. If only there had been beer.