[cumbria_lug] Bespoke software job

[Ian Linwood]

Roger Cope wrote:
> Programmers will always have 'language wars' amongst themselves but if
> you're making a living from programming then I'm a great believer in giving
> yourself a choice - better to have the ability to use the right language for
> the job then try to bend the job to an unsuitable language.
> 
A nod to common sense...

> Longtime LUGers will know I'm a specialist in a language called MUMPS, which
> is sidesplittingly old and clunky to non-believers but achieving 1000%
> growth per annum in the telecomms industry because it's the only commercial
> platform capable of storing all mobile phone communications and still
> remaining performant.

Marketing bollocks in a limited market will aways produce irrelevant
statistics. This whole paragraph smacks from a cut_and_paste from a PR
drone ("performant" - marketing muck)
> 
> MUMPS professionals who kept current and retrained to InterSystems' Cache
> have never had it so good - but they still represent a microscopic
> proportion of programming talent world wide. From the outside, MUMPS/Cache
> maybe a laughable anachronism but from the inside there's only one set of
> people laughing on the way to the bank!
> 
Apart from a rash, loss of appetite and seriously painful and swollen
glands, I cannot see what MUMPS has to offer. ;-)
(you invited the comment)

Higher level languages have been equally fickle. But those with a Unix
heritage have flourished.

If you have a specialist requirement, then a specialist development
environment may be required (crikey, even MUMPS).

But most requirements can be catered for by "off the shelf" products.
Use what fits. Whether it be an assembler or a higher level language.
But the most important thing is that you do not create a future problem
for your customer. MUMPS sounds like a serious LOCK IN problem,
something that Micro$haft would be envious of ("laughing all the way to
the bank" indeed!) Pretty disgraceful behavior IMO.