>Rick, I don't see a fence. I see chaos for its own sake, with people now so used to churning mess that they speak of it as if it is natural, even desirable. But think back to the FP days when all the whirly bits were encapsulated so people could create meaningful programs without knowing how the textbox appeared in the runtime form. Who cares! What was benefited by converting that to a mess in which the FP Valid event now can require 3 or more technologies on different boxes with all of them subject to change as you note at any moment that will involve a rewrite. Why did we agree to that?
You can't compare the simple DOS/WIN/MAC environment of the 80's to the complexity of mobile device platforms that go from embedded device screens, through phones for oversized multi-monitor desktop setups. THat's just not the same. You also couldn't do half the stuff we do today - connected applications that are broken out into self contained apps that can interact from completely different locations and dev teams even. Real time shared access (with a few lines of code). Things are not as simple as they used to be - it's not a controlled environment anymore.
Some things are harder but others are ridiculously easier than the way it worked back then.
+++ Rick ---