Development x Packaged software

Yet another current myth, in Forrester's view, is that custom application development is dead, having fallen out of favor and supplanted by packaged products, according to Ried's report. "Definitely wrong," he wrote. "Enterprises spend about the same on custom-developed business applications as on packaged business software." Packaged applications are accounting for 25.8 percent of software spending while spending on custom software stands at 25.6 percent, according to the report.

"Custom development can be better as long as the business logic isn't subject to legal or tax regulations, such as financial accounting software."

Lucid

Mais uma ótima dica do amigo Orsoni: Lucid. 

" If you have a chance, try googling “esoteric programming languages”, “befunge”, “brainf**k”, “unlambda”, or “thue". 

Lucid proposes a completely different model. You look at the flow of data, not the flow of control. It can be considered a "dataflow" language.

Javascript?

Perhaps the next universal language? Looks possible. Some advantages: simple, used both on client and server side, quick learning.

Agile turned mainstream

And object oriented also did. That is good. But are the methodologies really used as they should? It seems that... no.

The Future of Computing, The Future of Computer Programmers

An Interview with Yukihiro “Matz": Ruby, why to develop a language, what programmers will do, the cloud as a platform, and more.

2 news from my friend Teca

Very insightful post on Doug Engelbart. Not "the mouse inventor" but a thinker of human interaction.

Interesting post on a woman working in Bletchley Park during the war. Turing worked with a lot of hard working people.

About COBOL

Banks will stick with COBOL because Java has performance issues, claims quality guru Bill Curtis: He shows real reasons of Cobol continuity. Nothing to do with the language. It is the maturity time for programs, the quality of programmers, the Web.
 
Also: Java apps have most flaws, Cobol apps the least, study finds