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Yep. That's why I bailed back in '99. You needed an MSDN subscription just so your apps could tread water. Phone rings "Hi, we upgraded our NT server and now y

by konad 16y ago

Yep. That's why I bailed back in '99. You needed an MSDN subscription just so your apps could tread water. Phone rings "Hi, we upgraded our NT server and now your software is broken". Many hours later "Oh MS changed the DB connection pooling to OFF" Me: Hmm, this Personal Home Page things looks ok, I'll give that a try. And as horrible as PHP is, it behaves itself.

CWuestefeld 16y ago
I don't see how this is any worse than trying to keep up with the latest version of some OSS library. Whether it's MS that's revving or open-source developers, changes happen, and if it's a breaking change in a shared library, sometimes you get hurt. Just yesterday there was a "goodbye python" article posted here, that blamed the fact that so many Linux installations have old installations of python, and so many things are broken when modules in the installation get updates.
- angstrom 16y ago
  Myopic viewpoints about code longevity tend to be driven by people that never worked on a project for more than 2 years. Few companies have business models that allow them to avoid the mess. It's not a problem for throw away projects or startups though.
  - konad 16y ago
    The same PHP code has followed me round since 1999. From FreeBSD 4 to Linux to OpenBSD to FreeBSD 6 (but in a VM running on Linux). Early on in my career I was given a codebase that adhered to every lesson in How To Write Unmaintainable Code. I can't thank fate enough.
- konad 16y ago
  I see what you're saying but upgrading an OSS library is usually undertaken by somebody that thinks beforehand "I wonder if upgrading this will have any implications" whereas clicking "Express" on update.windows.com is billed as pain free, just like all things point and click. Plus I had followed the advice in MSDN concerning connection pooling which was a registry setting for ODBC NOT part of the framework I was using (VBscript in ASP). Responsibilty for pooling was pushed into the framework. The goodbye python article was about assumptions one could make about what would be available before one's code arrived. I bet php3 code still runs just fine.
  - bl4k 16y ago
    You shouldn't be hitting 'express' on windows update on a live server just as you shouldn't be running 'update world' on a live linux server
    - konad 16y ago
      Security updates and product updates are mixed on Windows (or were I don't know now). They called them "Option Packs" back then which sounds like it just brings another keg to the party not plans to re-arrange the furniture.
- mrj 16y ago
  Distributing software always sucks, on every OS. It wasn't the language he had a problem with, it was the platform quirks.

by konad 16y ago

CWuestefeld 16y ago

I don't see how this is any worse than trying to keep up with the latest version of some OSS library. Whether it's MS that's revving or open-source developers, changes happen, and if it's a breaking change in a shared library, sometimes you get hurt. Just yesterday there was a "goodbye python" article posted here, that blamed the fact that so many Linux installations have old installations of python, and so many things are broken when modules in the installation get updates.

angstrom 16y ago
Myopic viewpoints about code longevity tend to be driven by people that never worked on a project for more than 2 years. Few companies have business models that allow them to avoid the mess. It's not a problem for throw away projects or startups though.
- konad 16y ago
  The same PHP code has followed me round since 1999. From FreeBSD 4 to Linux to OpenBSD to FreeBSD 6 (but in a VM running on Linux). Early on in my career I was given a codebase that adhered to every lesson in How To Write Unmaintainable Code. I can't thank fate enough.
konad 16y ago
I see what you're saying but upgrading an OSS library is usually undertaken by somebody that thinks beforehand "I wonder if upgrading this will have any implications" whereas clicking "Express" on update.windows.com is billed as pain free, just like all things point and click. Plus I had followed the advice in MSDN concerning connection pooling which was a registry setting for ODBC NOT part of the framework I was using (VBscript in ASP). Responsibilty for pooling was pushed into the framework. The goodbye python article was about assumptions one could make about what would be available before one's code arrived. I bet php3 code still runs just fine.
- bl4k 16y ago
  You shouldn't be hitting 'express' on windows update on a live server just as you shouldn't be running 'update world' on a live linux server
  - konad 16y ago
    Security updates and product updates are mixed on Windows (or were I don't know now). They called them "Option Packs" back then which sounds like it just brings another keg to the party not plans to re-arrange the furniture.
mrj 16y ago
Distributing software always sucks, on every OS. It wasn't the language he had a problem with, it was the platform quirks.