Maybe... question would be that if tools were available from the 1980s to allow prototyping right there in the development environment, why are "new improved" tools unable to do it?


That's actually quite easy to explain - because the "nuts and bolts" languages/tools in Phase 2 (when it's "turned over to the programmer") have gotten so much more complicated.

I took some time last night and read as much as I could on LightSwitch (which meant wading through ever 2-bit Twitter retweet) - sure, it has some value. But I have yet to see anything seriously beyond a parallel with the Genifer product in 1989. (which was a very nice product)

MS is doing a great deal of "throwing things against the wall to see what sticks"...not meant as a negative comment, they almost have to take this approach. These products need to be viewed not "just" for what they are, but also in the context of the way they release certain new tools. Things like PowerPivot....spatial data....data mining....they release some rather impressive functionality that has short legs "somewhere", to see how the market will react. Considering that in the first part of this decade, they weren't releasing anywhere near as many new things, I'll take the more recent approach, even with the occasional disorder that it brings.