establishing an agile platform

2007-08-13 @ 14:45#

found some interesting posts today on the notion of "standardizing an agile platform." jerry cuomo and sam ruby have some pithy comments about the following set of tools:

  • Scripting based programming methodology
  • Constrained around simple web protocols, data formats and SQL
  • Focused on Rich User Interfaces with Javascript
  • App server is natural extension of the Web Server

i'm on board for this kind of thing, but am not quite ready for ruby's remark about SQL:

The next domino to drop is data silos. Which if you think about it is a bit ironic. Just as we move towards desktops with multiple CPU “cores”, and with direct access to terabytes of data storage, we are starting to find the notion that all the data you want is all is one place, all you have to do is form the right query to be increasingly a quaint one.

This makes SQL and components like ActiveRecord the weak link.

i can see the point. i already have a nagging feeling that SQL data stores suffer from flexibility, scaling, and distribution issues. using SQL to implement a successful data model that supports typical blog tagging is proof enough of that. but, for my part at least, i'm not yet thinking in RDF and SPARQL. that's going to take some time for me - and i suspect for lots of other folks.

update: 2007-09-21

see more posts on this here.

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