Very good question! In my opinion, MUMPS has some important strong points: 1. simplicity 2. efficiency 3. support for complex data structures in the language 4. excellent integration of persistent (global) storage into the language.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I think that with a little work the language could be a very good fit for academic/research applications. Until we no longer have to stand on our head to integrate MUMPS applications with other technologies, few people are likely to find it attractive for commercial applications. (BTW, not only have I been a MUMPS programmer for 10+ years, I happen to believe I am very good at it, too. I have no vested interest in "talking down" MUMPS.) --- Nancy Anthracite <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How can you get young people interested in working in the VA on VistA > using M > if you do nothing but tell everyone that you are dumping it and you > treat the > IT folks working on M like they are a fifth wheel and tell them that > if they > retrain into another field, they might keep their jobs? Where is the > fun in > a job like that? They will go work for Epic, or Partners, or Daou or > IDX, or > Perot or whatever, not the VA. > > On Tuesday 01 March 2005 08:05 am, steven mcphelan wrote: > > RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC RevivalI believe Cameron's statement > about the > > VA management not being able to back off of migrating to a newer > platform > > is probably very close to the truth. However, I am sure that there > were > > some real business management decisions made (or at least I hope > so). I > > saw an article recently that estimated that 40-50% of the current > VA IT > > staff will be retiring in the next 5 years. If I was a manager of > VA IT I > > would be very concerned about that. I would seriously consider > moving my > > technology to a platform that enables me to recruit competent IT > staff > > without having to rely on in-house training for the next generation > of VA > > IT support. I would even consider technology that is inferior to > my > > current technology as long as the new technology meets my needs and > gives > > me greater flexibilty in personnel matters or provide me the > opportunity to > > competitively outsource some IT functions. > > -- > Nancy Anthracite > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide > Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real > users. > Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > ===== A practical man is a man who practices the errors of his forefathers. --Benjamin Disraeli ==== Greg Woodhouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
