On Wed, 26 Sep 2007, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> I personally think that it is almost always a mistake to do "a vast
> amount of programming ... not to make products which are sold to others
> but for internal consumption".  Programmers should be paid to produce
> software that fills profitable markets, not to do infrastructure
> projects that could be done using off-the-shelf software.

This sounds like an opinion held firmly enough that it's unswayable, but
just in case you care to contemplate it, I'll tell you why I disagree.

In my world, at least, programming is cheap. Solving problems can be
expensive and difficult, but the coding aspect of that is generally
fairly trivial. In fact, due to the flexability you have when writing
custom software, it can be easier than trying to configure a commerical
package.

Another way of looking at it is that all that time you spend tweaking
XML configuration files is just another form of programming anyway. Why
not just do it in Ruby (or whatever) instead, if that's easier?

(This is not to say I don't use off-the-shelf software, BTW.)

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson         <cjs / cynic.net>         +81 90 7737 2974
              http://www.starling-software.com
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it.    --George Bernard Shaw