You'd have thought I'd learned my lesson, but I'm going to give this another try.
> Obviously, my applications have been tested under load. I > just don't get paid to do elaborate server stress/heavy > load testing. I suspect that many web developers don't. No, they don't, I imagine. I don't think that's a good thing, generally. Most web applications use the "trial-by-fire" testing approach, I suspect. I'm not saying that each and every web application ever written needs to be load tested, either, but load testing is a very valuable tool for finding out (before it's too late) whether your application will do what it needs to do. > I wasn't telling half a story. I wasn't advocating anything > illegal or immoral. I was simply saying that the "Single > Threaded Sessions" setting works and is a handy option to > consider. I think that saying it works, as a blanket statement, is half a story. I'll agree to disagree with you on that, if you like. Legality and morality aren't really relevant, so we can skip that. When you say it works, what exactly does that mean? After all, there are plenty of people who use MS Access for the web applications, and for many of them, it works. Still, if someone asks me whether they should use Access for their database, my inclination is to say that they shouldn't. Does that make it a bad choice for everyone? I suppose not; some people don't need a "real" database server. Still, I'd take issue with a blanket assertion that Access is a suitable web application database. > In my twenty+ years of programming, I've noticed that > technical people tend to fall into two camps -- those who > admire simplicity and those who admire complexity. (I've > also noticed that complexity pays better.) You're obviously > in the latter group. In my years of living, I've noticed that people tend to fall into two camps - those who divide up everyone else into two camps, and those who don't. Seriously, these sorts of diametric oppositions always strike me as kind of false; I don't think things are that simple. I also think it's a mistake to view things as simpler than they are. Even if I accepted your division, I think I'd fall into the group that favors simplicity, although we might disagree about what it means to be simple. To me, given the choice of writing code that will always work, regardless of server settings or versions, or writing code that won't work unless the server is configured a certain way, and may not even work in some situations when the server has been configured, I'd argue that the first choice is simpler. > You've practically written a book here. If you were to charge > me your hourly rate for all this, I'd have to take out a second > mortgage. But I'm not charging you anything, so I'm not sure what your point is. I think it's worthwhile to warn people about potential problems before they occur. I have a vested interest, as a Macromedia partner, to see as many people succeed with CF as possible. If I can prevent one person from coding something they might regret later, then I've spent my time well. It's obvious that I spend a decent amount of time on this list answering questions, and no one's being charged anything. I do think it's a bit telling that you bring up my hourly rate, though. There's a reason that I charge what I do, for that type of work. It's because when that type of work is needed, people tend to be willing to pay whatever is necessary. There's nothing like the fear of having your company fail, or losing your job, or some other catastrophe to make you willing to pay lots of money for a quick fix. However, I think I'd rather that people just build scalable applications in the first place. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
