Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Internet Speed- Development Watching
Author: Steve Ivy Posted: 11/23/1998; 9:36:11 AM Topic: Testing a new feature. Msg #: 414 (In response to 413) Prev/Next: 413 / 415
Watching the various parts of the Scripting News site change over tha last months has been a fascinating exercise in real-time software development. This opened my eyes to an interesting phenomenon, and its effect on me.Once upon a time, software development was the domain of closed-box shops. Adobe, Macromedia, Quark. (Can you tell I'm in publishing? ;-)) We used their software, we liked or disliked it, and we all went 'oooh' and 'aahhh' when they released a new version or upgrade, and felt blessed that the (oh so wise) software gods had chosen to bestow their latest and greatest upon us. We complained when the latest and greatest wasn't, and continued to move forward, adapting ourselves to the tools.
FFWD to today, or the last year.
Userland has been running, for many years really, a rough experiment in real-time software development, very much like the open-source world's model. A tweak here, a tweak there, relase something, fix it, hear from developers, hear from users, work through the occasional spat. Frontier has become a web-development platform, supported by wonderful system-munging abilities. Watching the Scripting News pages- old & new, the discussion group site, and Frontier itself, has been fascinating. We've gotten to watch as a very involved software develpment process has unfolded before our browsers- the parallel development of a traditional application and its web-application counterparts.
Thinking on this in the last day or so leaves me in two places simultaneously: I'm struck by the power and flexibility in this system- awed, even. (And not much in this software world awes me.) At the same time, as a Frontier developer, I wonder whether or not I'm going to recognize Frontier 6 when it gets here! ;-) That's not a bad thing, per se, only something I wonder about. "How late, how long" will I dig to grok the new responders and functionality? (Morcheeba gave me the quote. Funky Trip-Hop!)
To wrap up, Morcheeba on the PMac gives me the analogy I need... Trip-Hop: it's slow, it's funky, it's its own thing. It weaves a tapestry in my head. Frontier is doing that- it's weaving a tapestry in my head, warped and woofed with responders, frameworks, membership, ODBs and GDBs. Watching it happen is all part of the fun.
Still digging, as Morcheeba does strings....
--Steve
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