“Flip the Switch!”

I sometimes just have to stop and laugh (or else I’ll go nuts) when I see all sorts of new technology frameworks come out. Each one has some new gimic or new spin on how you can Do Things Better (TM). What I rarely see is for frameworks to focus on easing development and, at the same time, offer production-mode awareness.

I really enjoy Ruby on Rails, which does this is a simple and convienant way: it is dynamic during development when things change often, but becomes stable and graceful when in production. This is done through the concept of development and production modes . The framework looks at the mode and determines if it should constantly check to see if something has changed, or setup once and stay that way. The former provides a rapid environment for experimenting and getting things right, the latter ensures that errors fail gracefully and gives the user a better overall experience.

So, for anyone wanting to write YAFW (Yet Another FrameWork), please, be considerate of your fellow developer *and* end user. It seems like an easy thing and will make the end-user happy.

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