>Bruce,
>I respect your conviction and assessment, but what I am just trying to emphasize is the exact idea of 3-tier applications: easier maintenance and economically feasible. :-)

Jess, I don't mean to condemn 3-tier apps, the concept is fine...it's more a case of keeping things fast and simple...we have enough trouble (with federal employee/contract pay guidelines) finding individuals that are proficient at ONE development tool/environment/DB package, let alone three. So we generally go with monolithic apps...the legacy maintenance is much easier that way, too...