Speaking of wasting time...

You know, I 've looked at Fabrice's list of .NET tools, and seen the announcements of the ASP.NET Forums, and i can't help but wonder...

How many more people are going to write object-mapper / DAL generator software? There is like one new one that comes out a week. Guess what? NONE of them are easy to use. All I want to do is specify a database and hit "Generate". Kickstarter.net is on the right track, but they've got a ways to go.

It's like my co-worker said yesterday: "I don't understand why developers can't think more like Scott Cate. If you're going to build a similar app to everyone else then fine, but make it 10x better than anyone else. Very few developers can innovate worth a damn."

I'm gonna have to agree. Can anyone build a DAL tool that doesn't take 40 steps to run, and that doesn't put out overly-complex code? If it does take 40 steps to run, can you PLEASE document it well? If you're using the MSDN documentation as a guideline, you're on the wrong ship pal. If I want cryptic messages I'll read AlQaeda fatwas. Write it as if you used to be really smart but got hit upside the head with a brick in a freak accident, and now you're just a little bit slower than you used to be, and things are harder to comprehend.

Let me put it this way. If the instructions for using a condom were as complicated as the ones for using OlyMars, AIDS would have killed us all by now.

5 Comments

  • > If the instructions for using a condom were as


    > complicated as the ones for using OlyMars, AIDS would


    > have killed us all by now.





    OlyMars is not only an object/relational mapping layer, nor a DAL generator. OlyMars is a generic (multi-purposes) code generator, which can provide services for generating a DAL, database aware controls, or whatever you want if you write your own templates. Hence the complicated instructions for use.





    My $0.02,


    Christophe Lauer





    Btw, isn't "French Letters" another word for Condoms ? ;-))


  • I'm not touching the French joke. That's gotten me in trouble too much this week.





    I don't care how complicated the system is, if the instructions are difficult to understand, it's a waste of time.

  • I think completely disregarding something simply because the instructions are difficult to understand is a bit dismissive.





    These tools aren't targeted towards end-users; they're not always going to be user-friendly. Sometimes (read: most of the time) we have to dig further to derive the most value.

  • I do not buy that at all. In fact, that is the one things that buge me more than anything. In this case, we ARE the end users.





    A solution, by definition, solves a problem, it does not supplant the problem with a different one. If I have to waste time trying to figure out how to implement the solution, it ceases to be a solution and becomes ANOTHER problem.

  • I know this is over a month old now but I have to bite. If you don't like the tools other people write....don't use them. It _really_ is that simple.

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