symfony style admin/backend generator

[eluser]Crafter[/eluser]
Sorry, trigger happy there.

Zaatar, just where do we draw the line. I see your arguement about taking the fun out of the coding process, but how different is using generated code against say cutting and pasting code into yiur application, or using a library to do things.

Many years,ago I programmed on the VOS operating system where we had to hand program our database access. For example, we had indexed files, and doing an indexed read meant you read the index, get the record position in the data portion, then read the record from the file. Today I use a "SELECT ... WHERE ..." from a database. I chose not to continue using the file based database library because SQL provided me much flexibility.

When I first learnt HTML, I hand coded. Today, I use generated HTML code for most of my displays/views and customise them using code.

The more code generation there is, the harder it is to modify, the most compromises you have to make, or your client has to make, in order not to break the very rigid generation algorithm.

Cannot agree more with you. I'm not saying program your application based on generated code. That would be foolish. But I say use automation where ever you can. The time saved frees you up to provide more value to the end user by building on existing code..

To me, being a programmer is about doing something you love, making your life and other’s lives easier, and to write software..."providing business solutions” is for a consultant...not a programmer.

I want to urge you to rethink this position. I've been programming for over 17 years (20+ if you count student years) and I love it. Right now it's almost 2 am at home and I'm taking a break from ...coding ...!!!

However, I've learnt in those years that to continue enjoy what you do, you must be able to see the satisfaction in the faces of those who reap your labour, and that is whant I was referring to when I spoke about providing solutions. Your users dont see a bunch of code, they see a tool to help them with their budget, to keep records and save time.

Have a look at this tongue-in-cheek article;
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000962.html