4 ms·

Novel - not, in my opinion. How to do GUI is known from 1970-ties. Today's single page apolication frameworks slowly re-discover the wheel. It is funny to obser

Novel - not, in my opinion. How to do GUI is known from 1970-ties. Today's single page apolication frameworks slowly re-discover the wheel. It is funny to observe.

littlecranky67 6y ago
The very important difference is that we do distributed systems now (admitted, X originally was also distributed, but only the drawing/events parts, not on the data level). A SPA is a distributed system, with all its drawbacks & pitfalls. If you ever did VB development in the 90s, you will know how easy it was to get a basic app running with those fancy Drag'n'Drop RAD tools. But there was no networking, everything worked offline. But then came the web and the networks, and now everything has to be a distributed system.
- abraxas 6y ago
  There absolutely was a remote part to most VB6 apps. Usually they fetched data from some MS flavour of a RDBMS. Of course they were desktop apps and had to be installed individually but this “webify everything” mania seems to have smothered all dev productivity and experience on its altar.
  - littlecranky67 6y ago
    Yes, and I remember precisely how many apps just encoded the DB credentials inside of the code - with no access/rights abstraction whatsoever. So basically godmode. Thats why we use service layers in Apps today (REST, SOAP etc.) instead of granting a user's process godmode access to the DB.
    - avodonosov 6y ago
      Why godmode? If your DB user is restricted to specific tables and columns, he is controlled. If you eventually get access to the data, does not matter how many layers are in-between (REST, SOAP). You still got the data, so that's a "god mode" in the same sense.
      - littlecranky67 6y ago
        Row/Table level access controls don't work; you can't model use cases like "a user may not insert an order if he has 3 ore more unpaid invoices" or "a user can not insert anything until his password was changed in the last 30 days" etc. We have been there, it doesnt work. Thats why we use service layers of the DB to assert business logic.
  - avodonosov 6y ago
    Exactly. Today's SPAs qualify as "thick client" from the old days.

Novel - not, in my opinion. How to do GUI is known from 1970-ties. Today's single page apolication frameworks slowly re-discover the wheel. It is funny to observe.

littlecranky67 6y ago

The very important difference is that we do distributed systems now (admitted, X originally was also distributed, but only the drawing/events parts, not on the data level). A SPA is a distributed system, with all its drawbacks & pitfalls. If you ever did VB development in the 90s, you will know how easy it was to get a basic app running with those fancy Drag'n'Drop RAD tools. But there was no networking, everything worked offline. But then came the web and the networks, and now everything has to be a distributed system.

abraxas 6y ago
There absolutely was a remote part to most VB6 apps. Usually they fetched data from some MS flavour of a RDBMS. Of course they were desktop apps and had to be installed individually but this “webify everything” mania seems to have smothered all dev productivity and experience on its altar.
- littlecranky67 6y ago
  Yes, and I remember precisely how many apps just encoded the DB credentials inside of the code - with no access/rights abstraction whatsoever. So basically godmode. Thats why we use service layers in Apps today (REST, SOAP etc.) instead of granting a user's process godmode access to the DB.
  - avodonosov 6y ago
    Why godmode? If your DB user is restricted to specific tables and columns, he is controlled. If you eventually get access to the data, does not matter how many layers are in-between (REST, SOAP). You still got the data, so that's a "god mode" in the same sense.
    - littlecranky67 6y ago
      Row/Table level access controls don't work; you can't model use cases like "a user may not insert an order if he has 3 ore more unpaid invoices" or "a user can not insert anything until his password was changed in the last 30 days" etc. We have been there, it doesnt work. Thats why we use service layers of the DB to assert business logic.
- avodonosov 6y ago
  Exactly. Today's SPAs qualify as "thick client" from the old days.